
EDWIN H. CONGER 
UNITED STATES MINISTER TO CHINA 




MRS. EDWIN H. CONGER 
WIFE OF UNITED STATES MINISTER TO CHIN'V 



Massacres of Christians 

BY HEATHEN CHINESE 

AND 

Horrors of the Boxers 



CONTAINING A 

COMPLETE HISTORY OE THE BOXERS; THE TAI-PING IXSUR 
RECTION AND MASSACRES OF THE FOREIGN' MINIS- 
TERS; MANNERS, CUSTOMS AND PECU- 
LIARITIES OF THE CHINESE; 

ORIENTAL SPLENDORS ; SUPERSTITIONS; SECRET SOCIETIES; 

THE OPIUM HABIT; IDOL WORSHIP; INDUSTRIES; GREAT 

CITIES ; NATURAL SCENERY, ETC., ETC. 



By HAROLD IRWIN CLEVELAND, 

Of the Editorial Staff of Chicago Times-Herald. 

THIS GREAT WORK CONTAINS FULL ACCOUNTS OF RECENT ATROCITIES 

IN CHINA, BY SUCH EMINENT MISSIONARIES AS BISHOP THOBURN, 

BISHOP ANZER, MISS ANNA D. GLOSS, SUPERINTENDENT 

OF CHRISTIAN HOSPITALS IN PEKIN, CALVIN 

H. MILLS, OF SHAN-TUNG, CHINA, 

AND MA.NY OTHERS. 



Profusely Illustrated with Scenes in China and all objects 

•J of interest in that Wonderful Country. 



)r 

nl National Publishing Company 

>\ ■ 239, 241 AND 243 AMERICAN ST. 

PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



95353 



|Libr«ry of Congress, 

Two Copies Received 
DEC 28 1900 

SECOND COPY 

Delivered to 

ORDER DIVISION 

FEB 7 1901 



Mo! 



ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS. IN THE YEAR 1900, BY 

HORACE C. FRY 

M THE O^FSCE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C. 









PREFACE. 



THE hand of change is upon China. There are many of the 
Western world who wish that diplomats and generals, as well 
as foreign commercial corporations would so shape their courses 
that this change might come without slaughter, without the horrors 
of war, by peaceful means, slow and kindly patience with an 
ancient race. Perhaps this may yet be, but it seems doubtful for 
these, if not for other reasons. 

Taking the "opium war" of England in 1840 as the initial 
point for the troubles which have led to the present uprising, the 
history of China becomes that of the struggles of four factors to 
either control the government of the Empire or dismember it — 
Russia, continental Europe, England, and all Chinese opposed to 
the Manchu dynasty. So far the impression these have made 
upon the Empire proper may be compared to the bite of a mosquito 
upon the hide of an elephant. The Chinaman does not trust the 
white man. He will hobnob with him, trade with him, bow to 
him, make him presents, give him concessions on paper, appar- 
ently yield for the time being, but trust he will not. He will tell 
you that by all history he has no reason for trusting foreigners. 

Following the opening of the first treaty ports came the ne- 
cessity for quick means of communication throughout the Empire. 
This led to the building of railways. Some China undertook her- 
self. Others Belgian and German financial syndicates secured 
concessions for. Work on these last lines has been going on for 
many years. The engineers were instructed to lay out their 
lines on as absolutely straight courses as possible. Cemeteries, 
private property, temples were not to hinder them. The Belgians 
in 1897 an d 1898 were particularly brutal in following these in- 
structions. The evidence is ample that they built without the 

vii 

1 



viii PREFACE. 

slightest regard for the private property rights of the masses of 
the Chinese people. 

Where a road might have been turned aside to avoid a tomb, 
a cemetery or a temple (with little trouble to the engineer) they 
ruthlessly built straight ahead. The people protested without avail. 
Meanwhile Russia was apprised that Germany, England and 
France, eager to secure coming Oriental trade, were about to seize 
large tracts of sea coast territory and ports. So Russia took for 
herself, then followed England and Germany and France. They did 
this under cover of thin treaties which permitted them to remain 
where they had squatted, for but a short period of time, but they 
intended to stay forever. The violating of the commonest sancti- 
ties and rites of the people continued. 

Distrust, suspicion, intrigue are masters in the Eastern world. 
The secret societies of the Empire each watch for some new open- 
ing for the expulsion of the whites who have disturbed the tradi- 
tional peace of the nation. The Manchu dynasty is threatened on 
all sides by the legitimate Chinese aspirants to the throne. Ger- 
many and England are distrustful of every move made by Russia. 
France is waiting. Only the United States is disinterested. 

An edict from the throne of China said of the late uprising : 

" The present conflict between China and the foreign powers 
had its origin in the long standing antagonism between the people 
and the Christian missions. The subsequent fall of the Taku forts 
precipitated the meeting of force with force." 

The Boxers' outbreak does not, to the wisest and best informed 
men, appear to mean the dismemberment of China; rather it is but 
one of the unmistakable signs of the time that the long age of sleep 
and of isolation from the outside world, is ended. The Yellow 
Man is to come into direct contact with the White Man and the 
fitter will survive. Which will survive ? 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

Christianity Challenged by Buddhism -Meaning of the Awakening of China— Opinion of 
the Famous Bishop Thoburn— Christ's Doctrines Confronted by Oriental Faiths- 
Miss Patterson's Letter— Testimony of World-Famous Missionaries— Bishop Anzer 
Sounds a Note of Warning— The Yellow Man's Portentious Strength— His Power 
for Evil and for Good *■' 

CHAPTER II. 
GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

China's Surface Much Greater than Britain's— Many Thousands of Years of Antiquity 
Claimed— Density of Population Greatest Known— Labor Cheapest in the World- 
Perceptive Qualities Remarkably Acute— Passive Resistance, the Law of the Na- 
tion—Moral Standard Peculiar— Love of Wealth a Marked Quality— Material Com- 
forts Never Despised > 35 

CHAPTER III. 

THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 

The Boxers Regard Murder as Justifiable— The Most Powerful Known Secret Society— 
J Origin of the Word Boxer and Meaning— Methods of Torture of Victims— Natural 
Hostility to all White People- The Tai-Ping Society — Battle of the Foreign Min- 
isters in Pekin— Death of Baron Von Ketteler 53 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

Wonderful Dynasties of the Empire— Story of Their Origin— Cruel Power of the Emperor— 
The Mysterious Grand Council — Influence of Women Over the Emperors — Sacred 
Attributes of the Rulers— Kotowing— The Han Dynasty— Length of Life of the 

Dynasty— Emperor Controls Land and Water 08 

ix 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

China's Mind Permeated With Mysticism— Fables and Legends Created by Native Priests- 
Efforts of Confucius to Show the Truth— Story of the Three Virgins— Five Points of 
the Compass— Origin of the Earth— Creation of Man— Story of the Rose— Power of 
the Winds— Venus and the Sun 84 

CHAPTER VI. 

POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

Common People Influenced by Visions— Dreams Affect Their Daily Life— Often In- 
spired to Massacre by Alleged Supernatural Influences — Love for Signs and 
Tokens — Superstitions of the Masses — Gamblers with Fate — How Self-reliance is 
Destroyed— The Popular Mind Enslaved— Many Seekers for the Truth. ... 101 

CHAPTER VII. 

EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

First Authentic Records 2,000 Years Before Christ— The Writings of Confucius— Yao and 
His Rule — First Contact with India— Theories as to the Origin of the Race— Early 
Herders of Sheep — The Sixth Century Epoch — Attacks by Foreign Tribes — Assaults 
by the Tartar Races 122 

CHAPTER VIII. 

A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

Thousands of Secret Societies Exist— Many Pledged to Murder— Taking of Human Life 

Made Easy — Brotherhood of the Early Race Recognized — Hatred of the White 

k> Man Preached - Loyalty Under Torture— Societies Threaten the Throne— The 

Queen of Heaven's Company— The Kingdom of Great Peace 140 

CHAPTER IX. 

CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

Three Distinct Sects in the Empire — Followers of Confucius Powerful — Buddhism Still 
Thrives — Worship of Spirits and Natural Objects Prevails— Converts to Christianity 
Less Than 2,000,000— Power of the Jesuits— What Ricci Accomplished — Extinction of 
the Jewish Religion— The Feng-Shui 155 

CHAPTER X. 

ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

The Land of the Tibetan — Noblest Race in the World — Turkestan and Kashgarians— Mon*- 
golia and the Great Wall— Manchuria and Its Influences— Desert Wastes of Central 
Asia — Influence of Siberia— China Proper- Division of Provinces — Geological His 
tory— Acquiring Territory— Corporative Sise. 170 



CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XL 

SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

Variations in Climatic Conditions — Quantity of Rainfall — Extremes of Cold and Heat — 
Desert Regions— General Effect upon Natives— Seasons of Drought — Cause of 
Plagues — Diseases that Prevail — Medical Science — Physical Traits — Division of Sea- 
sons — Famine Periods. • • • 195 

CHAPTER XII. 

MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

Luxuriance of Flowers and Foliage — The Tiger is Lord— Prevalence of the Wild Boar— The 
Hardy Yabagre — The Yaks of Tibet — Bamboo for Building — Evergreens Especially 
Numerous — The Chinese Rat — How it Brings the Plague — The Value of the Horse 
— Passion for Flowers , 210 

CHAPTER XIII. 

COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

Fanaticism Governs Speech— Grammar an Unknown Quantity — Each Province has a 
Different Tongue — Language of the Mandarins — Location of a Word Fixes its 
Meaning — Figures of Speech Excessively Used — Foreigners much Puzzled — Pho- 
netics Govern Understanding — What "Pidgeon English" Is 223 

CHAPTER XIV. 

ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

Rule of Conduct with the White Man— Fondness for Gambling— Small Feet of Women- 
Reverence for Ancestors— Innumerable Temples— Burial of the Dead— Use of Opium 
—Influence of Tea— Position of Children— Self-torture Inflicted— How the Queue 
Came— The Chinese Dude— Letter Writing -New Year's Time 238 

CHAPTER XV. 

REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

Pekin, the Sacred City— Shanghai and Its Trade— Shaohing of the Lowlands— Hang-Chew- 
Fu and Marco Polo— Tien-Tsin and Its Importance— Canton and the Pearl River- 
Hong Kong and the English— Exaggerated Town Population— Narrowness of Streets 
—Fire Departments— Police System 254 

CHAPTER XVI. 

WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAX. 

The Grand Canal— The River of Transports— Building of Great Bridges— Disappearance of 
the Yellow Sea— The Yellow River— Ravages by Changing Waters— Necessities for 
Water Routes— The Rivers of Shantung— Fighting the Floods— Character of Shipping 
—Opening Great Drains— Loss of Human Life 271 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

Some of the Highest Peaks in the World Discovered — The Kuen-lun Range — The Gold 
Mountains — Mount Kailas — The Four Sacred Rivers— The Kuku-Nor— The Little 
Five Crested Mountain — The Tapei-shan — Monks in the Ranges — Miners and Their 
Life— Dangerous Trails— The Glaciers 284 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

Headwaters of the Great India-Chinese Rivers — The Yarkand and Kashgar — Basin of the 
Pei-ho— The Hoang-ho — Basin of the Yang-tse-kiang — Errosive Effects of the Waters 
— Shifting Beds of the Streams — Sudden Inundations — Spirits Control the Waters — 
Geological Changes Effected 298 

CHAPTER XIX. 

AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

First Chinese Were Herdsmen — Value of Rice to the Race — Quantity Annually Used 
in Pekin — Cultivation of Other Cereals — Invention of the Plow — Discovery of the 
Silk Worm — Annual Product — Large Farms Unknown — Milk Quite Scarce — Hens 
Taught to Save — Size of Crops — Best Known. Gardeners 311 

CHAPTER XX. 

RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

Discovery of the Herb — Effect Upon the Natives — Quantity Annually Raised — Great Tea- 
Districts — Revenue Yielded the People — Effect Upon the Western World — Extent of 
the Traffic in Tea — Russian Control of Tea Trade — Chinese Methods of Drinking — 
Other Drinks 325 

CHAPTER XXL 

CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 

More Laborers than any Other Nation in the World — Scale of Wages Paid — Food Required 
for Sustenance— Quick to Imitate Foreigners — Value as Competitors— Virtual Slavery 
of Labor — Legislation Against Chinese Labor — Fear of Starvation — Intelligence of 
the Working Masses 338 

CHAPTER XXII. 

THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

First Use of the Drug by the Chinese— English Interest in the Drug— The Opium War 
of 1840— Opposition of the Chinese— Effect of the Drug 011 the Nerves— Annual 
Amount Used— World-growth of the Habit— Description of an Opium Den,— Influ- 
ence on America , ,,,..,... 352 



CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

First Railroad Constructed— Feeling of the Chinese Towards Railroads— Concessions to 
Belgium and German Syndicates — Concessions to England — Where the Railroads 
Penetrate — Mileage at the Present Time — Chinese Opposition to Them — Demons 
and Devils. 365 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

# 

THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 

Official Position of the Mandarin— His Relations to the People— His Connection with 
the Throne— How His Power Grew— His Influence in Insurrections— Number of 
Mandarins — Their Moral Character — The Mandarin's Family — How he Collects 
Taxes— Sir Robert Hart 377 

CHAPTER XXV. 

SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 

What it is to be Emperor of China — Assassination a Powerful Weapon — Unlimited Power 
of the Ruler — Number of His Wives — His Moral Conduct — How He Dresses— His 
Palace — Revenue Granted Him — General Character of the Chinese Emperor — The 
Empress Dowager — Her Life Story 392 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

Penal Code of China — How Long it Has Been in Existence— Punishment for Various Crimes 
— Frightful Tortures Imposed Upon Prisoners — Method of Execution — Manner of De- 
tecting Crime — Number of Annual Executions — Populace Generally Honest— Great 
Criminals Almost Unknown 40G 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

The Navy of the Japanese War— Fighting Qualities of the Chinaman— Weapons Most Pre- 
ferred—Past Conflicts and Their Results— Physical Courage Often Lacking— Arsenals 
and Their Capacity— Knowledge of Iron and Steel— Use of Foreign Armament— Many 
Foreigners With the Army 419 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 

First Treaty Ports— How They Were Opened for Foreign Trade— Resistance to the Author- 
ities—Subsequent Opening of Other Ports— The Part the United States Played— Why 
China Yielded to Foreign Pressure— Present Value of the Ports— Shipping Interests— 
The Foreign Quarters 4:jl 



xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 

What Steam has Accomplished — Introduction of the Telephone and Telegraph — Open- 
ing of Hitherto Closed Cities — Power of the English Language — Use of Christian 
Hospitals — New Knowledge of Medicine — Improvement of Sanitary Conditions. — 
The New Plow— The Threshing Machine * 446 

CHAPTER XXX. 

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Their Relation to China — Attitude of the Lion — Ambition of the Bear — The Slav Facing 
the Anglo — Kelt, the Mongolian Between — Spheres of Influence — The Open Door 
— The Concessions Granted — Bribery and Corruption — Beresford's Visit to China — 
The Port Arthur District— The Shanghai Incident 459 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

Early Meeting of the Hindu and the Mongol — Interchange of Religious Ideas — Commercial 
Trade Established — Expeditions Sent to India — Emigration from India — Relations 
of the Two Nations to the West — India's Influence in China — Racial Differences- 
Indian Troops Now In China 472 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

Masterful Position of the United States— Where France and Germany Stand— The Philip- 
pines and How They May Affect China — Proposed Partition of the Empire — What 
This May Mean — Li Hung Chang, the Great Diplomat — Coming Western World 
Changes— Hope for the Future 488 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

JAPAN AND COREA. 

Japan's War With China — Origin of the Japanese and Corean Race of People — What They 
May Accomplish for China — Japan's Position to Russia — Possible War on this 
Account — Character of the Japanese — The Mikado — Superstitions of the People- 
Religious Beliefs and Legends — Literature and Poetry 503 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 

Breaking Up Old Systems— The Strength of the School Teacher— Patience of the School 
Children— Courses of Study— Difficulties of Christian Teachers— Obstacles to be 
Overcome— Character of the Literature— A Race Famous for Poetry— Examples of 
Early Poems - Prose Works 518 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

First Introduction of Protestant Missions — Location of Catholic and Protestant Missions — 
Resistance of the Chinese to Their Presence — Famous Massacres — Educational Ben- 
efit to the Chinese — Examples of Missionaries Killed — The Early Nestorians — The 
Famous Testimony Stone — The Future ..,..,,,.,,,, 530 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

Secret Prisons Many — Instruments of Torture Used — Branding the Body — Use of the Rack 
— Science Invoked to Aid Torture — Manner of Attacking White Men — Native Stoics 
Many — Indifference to Pain — The Philosophy of Torture— Use of Vitriol — The Knife 
and Sword— The Poison Cup ..,,..,,,,.. 545 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

The Wife and the Husband — More than One Wife — Treatment of the Children — Ideas of 
Life — Punishment for Infidelity — Despotic Power of the Husband — Respect for the 
Mother-in- Law — Fate of Widows— Method of Divorce — The Family a Holy Institu- 
tion — How It Originated 557 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

LOVE AND DEATH. 

Association of the Two — How a Chinaman Woos— Response of His Sweetheart — Belief in 
the Immortality of the Soul — Burial Ceremonies— Watching for the Spirits of the 
Dead — Symbols of Love — Death Not Feared — Poetry of Love — Agents Who Assist 
Lovers for Fees 570 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 

Great Age of Chinese Literature— When Printing was Invented — The Manuscripts at Munich 
—Tales of Travel — Fables for the Young — Addresses to the Gods — Manufacture of 
Paper — Newspaper Publication — Chinese Cartoonists — The Famous Cartoon on Ger- 
many and England t . . . . . 580 

CHAPTER XL. 

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

Possibilities in China— Qualities of the Race Worthy of Commendation— Evils to be Re- 
moved—Duty of the Western World — Dangers That May Be Avoided — New Eco- 
nomic Questions— Patience and Intelligence Needed— Diplomacy Much at Fault— 
The Twentieth Century Problem 589 



XVI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XU 

GLOSSARY AND KEY OF CHINESE TERMS 4 . 600 

CHAPTER XUL 

CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING 602 



,if&m W. feB3toft»a5riKy ,r, 




CHINESE OPIUM DEN AND SMOKERS. NOTE THE FACIAL EXPRESSION 
INDICATING THEIR DELIRIUM 



1 




A STATE DINNER OR BANQUET AT A MANDARIN'S HOUSE 
A MANDARIN IS A GOVERNOR OF A PROVINCE 




VIEW FROM THE GREAT WALL OF PEKIN, SHOWING THE BRITISH 

LEGATION BUILDING 




CHINESE THEATRE, PEKIN; SCENE FROM THE PANTOMINE OF THE 

"SUN AND MOON" 



CHAPTER L 
China No Longer Sleeps. 

Christianity Challenged by Buddhism— Meaning of the Awakening of China— Opinion of 
the Famous Bishop Thoburn— Christ's Doctrines Confronted by Oriental Faiths- 
Miss Patterson's Letter — Testimony of World-Famous Missionaries — Bishop Anzer 
Sounds a Note of Warning — The Yellow Man's Portentious Strength — His Power 
for Evil and for Good. 

CHINA is a world nation. She may no longer sleep by the 
waters of the Yellow Sea, while Europe and America pro- 
gress. If it were the destiny of China for 4,000 years to 
dwell within herself, recognizing no outside influence, that destiny 
has now been changed by the series of events commencing with 
the English " opium war" of 1840, and ending with the massacres 
at Pekin and Tien-Tsin during the summer of 1900. The first 
indication at hand as to China's turning her face to the West and 
becoming an active nation is in the challenge given Christianity by 
Buddhism. Not until China has recognized the power of Western 
civilization can she take her place among the great Powers. 

Buddhism, which has given so many foundation stones to 
Christianity, is mysticism and mental slavery as practiced by the 
Chinese. It can no more adapt itself to the rushing, active life of 
the Western world than can Christianity shape itself to the passive 
resistance of the Oriental world. More than four centuries of 
Christian proselyting in China has resulted in the conversion of 
scarcely 2,000,000 Chinamen to the Christian faith. 

Palpably there is a mistake somewhere. Granted that the 

Christian religion in itself is the one best adapted to the spiritual 

needs of progressive people, then the mistake must be charged to 

the representatives of the nations of the Western powers who have 

had dealings with China for centuries past. And in this lies the 

truth. With the exception of a few men like Sir Robert Hart, 

" Chinese " Gordon and Minister Conger, foreign representatives 
2 17 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 19 

have presented their worst side to the Chinamen, with the result 
that the Chinese mind, now preparing for new changes, has come 
to regard the white man asa" foreign devil," one who can neither 
be trusted nor loved. On the other hand the Chinaman has given 
the white man and the white man's diplomats extraordinary lessons 
in mental duplicity and physical cruelty. The situation calls for 
the exercise of remarkable qualities of justice, of mercy, of sound 
judgment on the part of the rulers of the Caucasian races. The 
faiths of Confucius, of Buddha, of Lao-Tze are not to be shattered 
with sledge hammer blows. Reason must meet fanaticism, and 
Christian example and precept confront ignorance. 

THE DESTINY OF CHINA. 

Whether partitioned by the foreign powers or a new dynasty 
established, or taken over by Russia, the Chinese race is about to 
be precipitated into the whirlpool of Western competition for exist- 
ence. This is the real meaning of the awakening of China. More 
than 400,000,000 people are to come into contact with Germans, 
Frenchmen, Englishmen, Americans and Russians, and learn from 
them a new law of life. Tremendous resistance will accompany 
the taking of the lesson, but the end is inevitable. The Chinaman 
is becoming a world's citizen. Even if he would, he can no longer 
prevent this, and it is utterly impossible that the Western world 
should shut the gateways which its diplomacy and its cannon have 
finally opened. The words of Bishop Thoburn, of Asia, and repre- 
sentative of the Methodist Episcopal Church in China, seem almost 
prophetic. Bishop Thoburn has been stopping at Lake Bluff, near 
Chicago, Illinois. He has just returned from China. This is his 
statement : 

"I have no doubt whatever that both the English and Ameri- 
can idea of maintaining what is called the ' integrity of the Chinese 
Empire/ is utterly hopeless. A year ago, when a similar question 
was put to me, I replied that the proposal to preserve the integrity 
of the Chinese Empire was like that of trying to preserve the in- 
tegrity of an iceberg, floating under a blazing sun, into the warm 
waters of the southern sea. The events of the past few weeks 



20 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

abundantly justify the opinions I had formed and then stated. If 
this policy is continued by the English-speaking nations, other 
countries will gradually absorb the Empire. This would be a fate 
which both the Chinese and the English-speaking peoples would 
deplore for centuries to come. 

AMERICA FACE TO FACE WITH CHINA. 

" I think Providence indicates somewhat clearly our duty in 
the immediate present. As to the future, we can only trust to the 
development of events for further guidance. Without any plan- 
ning, or seeking, we have been placed in possession of the strongest 
naval position in the immediate vicinity of China. We are des- 
tined, in the early future, unless we blindly refuse to accept an 
opportunity which Providence manifestly is offering us, to become 
the strongest naval power in the Pacific. Nearly forty years ago 
a brilliant Scotch writer published an article in which he pointed 
out that the Pacific ocean was destined to become a great American 
lake. Our country lies face to face opposite China. We ought to 
maintain not only a strong position, but the leading position in that 
part of the world. 

" While face to face with momentous issues, now at stake in 
China, it seems to me that it is solemn trifling to manufacture po- 
litical catch-words like expansionist or anti-expansionist. I believe 
in God, and of course believe in what is popularly called ' Provi- 
dence,' which in fact is another word for God. I believe with the 
first Christian missionary mentioned in history, that when God 
made all nations of men on the face of the earth, he i fixed the 
bounds of their habitation.' There was a time when the Spaniards 
owned Florida and California, and when the French owned the 
Mississippi valley and Canada. God had given those nations res- 
ponsibilities for which, on trial, they were not found fitted, and I 
believe as fully that it was God who placed their territory in the 
hands of the United States and Great Britain, as that in the earlier 
age he gave Judea to the Hebrews. I believe that God, overruling 
the evil purposes of men, gave the United States possession of the 
Philippine Islands. I believe that God has purposes concerning 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 21 

China which cannot be thwarted by all the scheming politicians in 
this world, and that in connection with these purposes a great res- 
ponsibility will devolve upon the American people. Just what our 
government should do in detail, perhaps no one can now state, but 
one thing should be stated so clearly that no intelligent person in 
the world can misunderstand it, and that is, that in determining 
the final political status of the Chinese Empire, nothing shall be 
done without the approval of the American government." 




THE BOXERS ARE SCHOLARS. 

Bishop Anzer, Catholic bishop of South Shantung and a man- 
darin of the second class in China, now visiting in Modeling, one 
of Vienna's suburbs, was asked if he believed the present troubles 
would result in the partition of China, he said : 

" No ; for that is a vast problem for the solution of which the 
powers engaged would need to have immense forces there. It will, 
therefore, be to the powers' interest to avoid complete overthrow of 
the Empire ; and as for controlling the present outbreak against 
the Christians and Europeans, that can be accomplished with the 
forces at hand, provided the powers act in unity." 

Bishop Anzer had much to say of the Boxers and their organi- 
zation. " I know them from personal experience, for it is un- 
doubtedly they who, three years ago, murdered two of my mission- 
aries and thus caused Germany's interference and final seizure of 
Kiaochou. The statement frequently made in the papers that the 
Boxers are composed of the rabble of the nation is incorrect. There 
are doubtless lawless individuals among them, but I know that the 
best classes in China are also represented, including scholars, 
mandarins and high officials. I have met Chan, who is the chief 
of the sect, and he is a scholar. He declares that the members of 
the ruling house, being Manchurians, are foreigners and must be 



22 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

driven out. The movement, therefore, is really against the dynasty 
itself. The Empress is therefore deceived if she believes the 
Boxers' hatred is directed against the foreigners alone. " 

" You don't place much faith in the Empress' edict against 
the Boxers ? " he was asked. 

" That is mere pretense," was the reply. " The Boxers were 
formed first to prevent the Japanese from gaining control of China 
at the time of the China-Japanese war and also to exterminate the 
bandits. Their purpose was, therefore, patriotic, but the sect soon 
began murdering Europeans. I made complaint at Pekin and the 
government sent General Ju to fight them — the same general who 
was the secret founder and protector of the sect. He reported that 
the Boxers had ceased to exist and was made vice-regent of Shan- 
tung province. We protested to the government because of this 
appointment, and General Ju was recalled and given a higher posi- 
tion. Chinese officials near my mission told me that they would 
like to protect us, but had received secret orders from Pekin to 
leave the Boxers alone. Some nine months ago I went to Pekin 
to demand redress for damages done my mission by the Boxers. 
There I saw Li Hung Chang, whom I know well, but who was 
then no longer in office. He advised me to lay my complaint be- 
fore the Tsung-li Yamen, but only when Prince Ching was pre- 
siding." 




ANTICIPATING THE MASSACRE. 

Miss Francis R. Patterson, Congregational missionary at 
Tien-Tsin, wrote on May 29th, 1900, the following anticipatory 
letter of the great Boxer massacre. Miss Patterson is well known 
in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, as well as in New York, as an 
earnest worker for Christianity in China, Her letter says ; 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. '!•] 

il Last night was the night set for an attack on this settle- 
ment. Yon know the Chinese always announce such things in 
advance, or threaten them. They've set about ten or twenty such 
dates in the one and one-half years I've been here. The volun- 
teers and the English marine guard were on duty all last night. 
A bicycle patrol kept watch all over the settlement, so that the 
alarm could be given in time if anything happened. 

" The general opinion is that we are comparatively safe here ; 
that the Boxers will talk a good deal, but dare not attack so large 
a foreign community. You see we are quite a good-sized city by 
ourselves. There are trained companies of English and German 
volunteers, besides the English and French marine guards. Be- 
sides that there is not a man in the city who is not armed. 

GREAT FEAR OF FIREARMS. 

" As a rule the Chinese are very much afraid of firearms. No 
one expected the Boxers to come last night, but the community 
believes in taking all precautions to avoid a surprise. 

" It was arranged last evening that all the private gates between 
the compounds should be opened in case of attack, so that all the 
American and English missionaries could go right through by 
Victoria road to the English consulate or to Gordon Hall. 

" By using the private gates from compound to compound we 
could get through quickly without going out on the Chinese road at 
all. The English consulate or Gordon Hall are chosen because the 
American consulate is too far away and in too exposed a condition. 

" They say they have plenty of large guns here and each gun 
would command a road. Moreover, the highest Russian official 
has sent to Port Arthur for Russian troops. 

" The American consul has just been here to say that fifty 
American soldiers are coming up on the noon train from the 
Newark, the admiral's ship. It is possible that they may be quar- 
tered in our compound in the empty Aiken house. Three cheers 
for the red, white and blue ! Won't it be glorious to see the Stars 
and Stripes ? " ^ — /^) ^-\ 



24 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

CHINESE LACK GREAT LEADERS. 

Dr. Anna D. Gloss of Pekin, China, daughter of Mary D. 
Gloss of Evanston, Illinois, in recent letters to her mother, throws 
some light on the trouble in China. Dr. Gloss is superintendent 
of the Methodist hospital in Pekin and has a nourishing practice 
among the Chinese nobility. One of her patients was one of the 
wives of Li Hung Chang before his removal from Pekin two or 
three years ago. In a letter written in May and received July 
15th, 1900, Dr. Gloss says : 

" The Boxers are placarding the walls of our compound with 
inflammatory threats, and our hospital for the first time at this sea- 
son of the year is without patients, although I have as many out- 
side patients and applicants at the dispensary as ever. Dr. F. E. 
Clark, of Christian Endeavor fame, and his good wife took supper 
with us recently. It seems as if there never were so many tourists 
as this year. Perhaps they fear there will soon be no Pekin and 
they had better see it while they can. This year there has been so 
little rain the farmers have been unable to work their land and we 
have been dreading what next year might bring of pestilence and 
famine. To-day, however, the long-looked-for rain has come." 

In another letter Dr. Gloss wrote : 

" As to coming home because of the political troubles of this 
poor country, if we were of your mind we would all have run away 
long ago. It is true that affairs are in a frightful state. The old 
Empress Dowager seems possessed to do everything possible to 
bring on a rebellion, but the Chinese are long-suffering, suspicious 
of each other and very sadly lacking in great leaders. They may 
endure things indefinitely. One day the old lady puts forth an 
order forbidding officials to read progressive newspapers. The 
principal publication of that sort is Japanese, and refused to be 
closed out, so nothing could be done about it. Another day she 
imprisons five promising young men of the literary class for no one 
knows what. 

" Still another day brings forth the command to disinter the 
bones of Kang-yu-Weis' ancestors for five generations and throw 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 25 

them to the dogs. The teacher tells me this morning that the 
teacher of Kwang Su, the deposed Emperor, is to be killed for no 
crime whatever, except perhaps for being too good a man. The 
official in charge of the telegraph in Shanghai is to be killed 
because he signed his name to a petition from the people of some 
southern islands and Chinese abroad asking the Empress Dowagei 
to reinstate Kwang Su. The ministers saw Kwang Su when they 
went to the palace for the audience and reported that he looked 
almost imbecile, having lost what little mind he had as well as 
strength of body in the troubles of the past year." 



C^-->-txoe<U»Ajfc-# ^C^CtZ^-jr 



CHINESE CHRISTIANS TRY TO DO RIGHT. 

Calvin Henry Mills, who was born in the Pekin country of 
American parents and who is known in all parts of the United 
States as a student of the Chinese character contributes the follow- 
ing interesting analysis of the Chinaman and his opinion on the 
future of the Empire. Mr. Mills' judgment on the subject is dou- 
bly valuable since he is connected with one of the foremost of Chi- 
nese Sunday-schools in the United States. He says : 

" The Chinese Christians have been made all that they are by 
Christianity. Its ideals work on the hearts of all alike. They are 
much like the Christians of any other nation, who are human and 
have their failings, but try to do right. Because there are some 
bad Chinamen, it should not be said that there are none who are 
good. The average Chinaman is of good character and honest. 
As there are good Chinamen and bad Chinamen, in the present 
trouble, I do not think we should get the idea in this country that 
the hatred of foreigners is racial any more than we should say the 
feeling of any certain class here is universal. 

"The saying that the only good Indian is a dead Indian has 
never appealed to me, nor do I think it should be applied to John 
Chinaman. With their churches, schools, free hospitals and dis- 
pensaries, missionaries have always been the best friends of the 



26 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

Chinese from the beginning of things — ever since the time of Fran- 
cis Xavier. When I say missionaries, I mean all, regardless of 
denominational distinction. While they do their utmost to convert 
the Chinese to Christianity, they do not have the ruthless disregard 
and contempt for Chinese traditions and peculiarities under which 
the average foreigners going to China for business purposes act. 

DESECRATION OF CHINESE GRAVEYARDS. 

" There are a good many causes both from within and without, 
which have brought about this crisis. As instances from without, 
I would say that the pushing forward of the Siberian Railroad by 
the Russians where Chinese graveyards have been molested and 
sharp bargains struck in regard to concessions, the continual 
encroachments, and the seizing of territory by other powers on all 
pretences have been largely instrumental. No greater hurt can be 
done a Chinaman than to outrage his dead. I remember an 
instance when my father was digging a well on his premises and in 
sinking it in a certain part of his compound encountered serious 
objections on the part of one of his Chinese neighbors, who said 
that the excavation would interfere with the fluids, which Confu- 
cians consider connect the living and the dead world, thus disturb- 
ing the rest of his ancestors, whose tombs were near by. My 
father disagreed with the view taken and would like to have 
imparted to him the better belief in Christianity, but respected his 
feelings in the matter and did not deride him or act contrary to his 
wishes. 

" At the seaports also, where great attempts have been made 
to get hold of China's commerce, foreign merchants, by their greed, 
in many cases have caused a feeling of unrest. While I do not 
wish to hold a brief for the Boxers, believing as I do, that all 
marauders should be justly punished, it should be borne in mind, 
however, that in the recent uprising all foreigners look alike to the 
Chinese. Most of the Society of the Long Knife are influenced by 
mischief makers and know little of white men, coming as they do, 
from remote districts. They know not whether a white man is 
good or bad ; whether he is in China to preach, or to poach. All 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 27 

they feel is the sting of having been deprived in some cases of 
property and in others of being reviled and ill-treated by the hood- 
lum white class. Who knows also whether the worm has not 
turned in retaliation at the exclusion of the Chinese from this 
country ? 

I think China can be Christianized. It may take a long time, 
but, while there are great obstacles in the way 7 I think they can 
be overcome. There is the natural Chinese conservatism and the 
fact that they have already an established form of religion and 
ethics, of which they are very proud. Notwithstanding these con- 
ditions, of late there have averaged about 10,000 conversions of all 
forms of Christianity yearly. The great test of a substantial 
change of heart lies in the way converts stand persecution. 

LITTLE MISSIONS AND NATIVE PREACHERS. 

In a great many cases in the interior little missions have been 
established, which a white man reaches perhaps twice a year and 
where they are visited by native evangelists perhaps no more often 
than once monthly. There the Chinese converts, isolated as they 
are, have every opportunity to renounce a new belief under perse- 
cution, especially when it grows as violent as it has in the late up- 
rising. Yet even in these remote places they stand firmly for their 
belief in Christianity. 

I hope that the present uprising will not lead to the partition 
of China. I think that the United States and England will both 
lend as much pressure as they can to keep China intact. An 
unselfish policy, which those, who have the country's best interests 
at heart, think the best is : The removal of evil rules ; the estab- 
lishment of a government which will protect foreign interests, mis- 
sionaries and native Christians ; the practice of the Golden Rule 
by other nations, and the saving of China for the Chinese under 
the direction of the allies. 

If the Chinese could be positively certain that the powers were 
acting on this plan, in good faith, it would not be necessary for 
Christendom to keep standing armies in the Orient, and the spec- 
tacle of the great nations quarreling for ages over the division of 



28 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

the Empire would be averted. There are plenty of just and capa- 
ble men in China who would give a good government, and the 
Emperor, if he were let alone, would be very glad to do all he could 
to establish an honest administration. He was in favor of reforms 
until his hands were tied and he was compelled, by the intrigues of 
the foreign element, to banish reformers from Pekin. 



6«w» YrWf t/ /Wi*^ 




CHARACTER OF THE EMPRESS. 

J. M. Mussen, an eminent counsellor of Canada, residing at 
Cayuga, and just returned from three years of life in Shanghai, 
speaks intelligently of the Chinese situation in these words : 

" I have spent most of my time in Shanghai and have not been 
up country since last autumn, before the trouble came, but I have 
known for some time that it was brewing. The anti-foreign ele- 
ment has been in the majority and has only been awaiting a good 
excuse to break out and clear the country of foreigners and their 
reforms. The Boxers are an ignorant set of people and started 
their uprising because of the dissatisfaction that they felt toward 
the existing state of things. Their movement, while it was orig- 
inal, was quickly taken up and fostered by the anti-foreign element 
of the government, who saw in it a chance to do what they did not 
dare to attempt openly. Therefore they allowed the Boxers to go 
on with their outrages, encouraging them and financing them 
secretly, while they outwardly made a bluff at stopping them. 

" The Empress Dowager is absolutely in control, and if she 
succeeds in keeping the young son of Prince Tuan upon the 
throne, she will remain in control for many years yet, providing 
the powers do not partition China. She is a woman without scru- 
ples, is against the foreigners and reform and cares for nothing but 
to extort money from the viceroys. 



(JHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 29 

She is supremely selfish and knows that if the foreigners are 
driven out that she will remain in control and can go on with her 
extortions. When she is in need of money she sends for a viceroy 
and makes him divide with her. tte is not allowed to leave the 
palace until he does so, 

" There are only two viceroys in China of whom the Empress 
is afraid, Liu of the province of Ngan-hoe and Yuan of the province 
of Kiang-su. Both are immensely popular in their provinces as 
well as elsewhere in the Empire, and are decidedly pro-foreign in 
their tendencies. Both received orders from the Tsung-li-yamen to 
murder all the foreigners in their respective provinces and both 
sent w r ord that they would commit suicide before they would obey 
the order. They are too powerful to be molested, and therefore the 
foreigners in their provinces feel safe. 

" Li Hung Chang is a shrewd, unscrupulous, money-grabbing 
old schemer, without a particle of honor or patriotism. He does not 
care what becomes of the country so long as he can make some- 
thing out of it. It is common knowledge that he sold out to the 
Russians in 1898, when they acquired Port Arthur. He is said to 
have received 1,000,000 taels, or about $700,000 for the job, and 
I've no doubt but what he will sell out to the Russians again this 
time if he has the chance. The foreigners in China have not the 
slightest confidence in him. 

" The power that all China fears most is Russia. When a 
Russian official goes to visit a Mandarin he goes in state, mounted, 
and with a detachment of Cossacks as body guard. The Chinese 
like show ; it makes them respect one, and when this Russian 
official descends upon a Mandarin's house they all kow-tow to him, 
but they have no respect nor fear for the British or American 
official, who arrives on his visits of state with only a few chair 
bearers as escort. 

" I think that Russia is the only power that is anxious to par- 
tition China. She wants territory. England, America and the 
other powers simply want trade.'' 



/ft/itA tit, 



miujL/ 



30 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

The Reverend J. Martin Brown, formerly a resident of Den- 
ver, and now engaged in edncational and other work in west China, 
returned to this country in June, 1900, just before tht outbreak of 
the Boxers became serious. Reverend Mr. Brown writes entertain- 
ingly and authoritatively of mission work in the districts in China 
with which he is familiar. The following is from his pen : 

ROMAN CATHOLICS SUFFER MUCH. 

" The uprising led by U-mon-tse which began over a year ago 
had practically subsided when I left China. This uprising was in 
the Chung-king country and while it lasted led to the killing of a 
number of foreigners and a great many native Christians. The 
uprising was only one of the many which have taken place in 
China during the last forty years against the presence of foreign- 
ers. The unconverted Chinaman is yet unable to distinguish 
between a Christian white man who means him well and a commer- 
cial agent who is not so scrupulous in his treatment of him. It is 
a singular fact that in most of these uprisings, so far the Protestant 
Christians have suffered far less than the Roman Catholic Chris- 
tians. A great many Protestant Christians were robbed of their 
property, but only a few lost their lives. Many Roman Catholic 
Christians were killed and at one time there were nearly 11,000 
refugees of that faith who were being fed from mission funds. The 
Chinaman may be able to explain it. I am not. 

" I do not believe if the mass of the Chinese people were free 
from bad political leaders that they would ever rise against the for- 
eign ministers of all faiths who are working in their country. 
They have a great many bad and prejudiced leaders. These fre- 
quently incite them to rebellion, not only against the missionaries 
but also against their own government. 

' Yet the more intelligent class of Chinese are already perceiv- 
ing that they work their own country greater harm in these upris- 
ings than they do the foreigners. A little patience on the part of 
the white man, a little more preaching of the words of Christ, a lit- 
tle less commercial spirit displayed on the part of those who have 
business enterprises in the Empire, and there will be no more mas- 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 31 

sacres. The general character of the missionaries in China of all 
churches is high. 

" From my own experience, I can say that those I have met do 
not mingle in affairs of state and do not attempt to form political 
connection. They strive to teach the native the English language. 
They strive to secure for the native women more humane treat- 
ment. They open medical schools and practice medicine, they care 
for the halt, the lame, the sick and the blind and this at the 
expense of their churches. They have alleviated an enormous 
amount of suffering in the Empire. Their work in many instances 
has been heroic. 

WILLING ENOUGH TO CHEAT THE NATIVES. 

" I cannot say so much for the commercial interests of England 
and Germany which are now extensively represented there. The 
class of commercial agents sent there contains a few able men, but 
there are a larger number of those who believe that it is lawful to 
cheat the native and to desecrate those things which are most sacred 
to him. This line of conduct has had more to do with the Boxer 
uprising than any of the work of the missionaries. A Chinaman 
believes if the Christian religion can make one white man good, 
that all white men ought to be good. When he finds that one 
white Christian is good and that five so-called white Christians are 
not good, he condemns not only the religion but all white men. 

" The stories are strange that the Chinese trouble-makers 
spread in order to make trouble between the natives and the whites. 
A year ago there were everywhere, in the district I was in, stories 
of foreigners stealing and eating children. These stories were 
of the same kind which produced riots in neighboring provinces. 
They indicate a concerted effort on the part of political leaders to 
stir up trouble. It is impossible to criticise the average China- 
man for believing these stories. A great majority of the white 
men with whom he comes in contact have done sufficient against 
him to make him believe that they do eat children. 

" I do not believe that the Empire will be partitioned. No 
continental power can afford to have that experiment started. If 



32 china no Longer sleeps. 

it is attempted, it will lead to a gigantic war between all the first 
nations in Europe, and which the United States will have hard 
work to avoid getting into. Of all the white nationalities the 
American is the most respected in China, probably because his 
name is less connected with the evils which contact with the foreign- 
ers has brought upon the nation. Russia exercises a tremendous 
power over the present dynasty. 

" If the Empire is to be partitioned, Russia will sacrifice every 
soldier that she has before she will relinquish her practical control 
of the northern half of China. But I think she is powerful enough 
to prevent partition and to in the end secure a joint protectorate 
over the Empire, in which she calculates she and the United States 
will have the most to say. She is not only friendly to the United 
States through tradition, but because a tacit alliance with this 
country would enable her to hold at bay England and Germany, 
and to throw France overboard at any time she desired. " 

ORIENT AND OCCIDENT AT ODDS. 

Richard W. Hazlitt, resident of St. Louis for a number of 
years and during the last five years engaged in colporteur work 
and traveling in China, having Canton as his headquarters, writes 
intelligently of China as he views that Empire's condition at the 
present time. He says : 

" It never will be possible for the Chinaman and Western man 
to be wholly harmonious in thought. I do not mean to intimate 
by this that many Chinamen do not desire cordial relations with 
the West. They do seek this. But there is a blood difference be- 
tween the Asiatic and the Western spirit, which I do not think 
can ever be overcome. China cannot be partitioned nor swept off 
the face of the earth. The best that can be hoped for is that amic- 
able terms may be arranged between her and the Western powers 



CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 33 

and she brought into contact with the best of Western civilization. 
If this is accomplished, a new civilization adapted to Asiatic condi- 
tions will arise in China and remove the superstition and ignorance 
that exists to-day. It is not best for China that the present Manchu 
dynasty should remain longer in control. I think if a native 
Chinaman of good blood and one who was satisfactory to all the 
Chinese, could be elevated to the throne that the relations with 
foreign powers would be materially improved. 

OLD AND OUT OF DATE. 

" The Manchu dynasty unquestionably stands for retrogres- 
sion. It clings to the civilization of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries and those that preceded. It is anti-white to the point of 
savagery. On the contrary I know of a great many educated 
Chinamen who are not anti-white, who, while they do not bear the 
Christian religion great reverence, at the same time respect it as 
the worship of the white man, and are willing that it should have 
its place in China so long as it does not provoke the people to out- 
breaks. Buddhism has been the religion of the nation for so many 
centuries that any effort to rudely displace it immediately would 
lead to war the end of which could not be predicted. 

" The insurrections which are now attracting so much atten- 
tion in Pechili and Shantung have really been in progress for the 
last fifty years. They have never wholly died out since 1840 and 
will not so long as the present political leaders continue in power 
at Pekin. I have great faith in the ability of the native Chinaman 
to govern himself if he was educated. Education, the Western 
world can well afford to give him because, unless he is exterminated, 
he is going to be in the next hundred years a tremendous factor in 
the labor and commercial world. 

" There is not a field of labor in which the educated Chinaman 
can enter in competition with the ordinarily educated white man, 
but what he is, if not a better, as good a workman, and far less ex- 
pensive. He can live on what would starve a white man — not only 
live but be happy and contented and save money. Few Chinamen 
who are educated as artisans have any desire to remain on wages. 
3 



34 CHINA NO LONGER SLEEPS. 

Their ambition is to become employers or capitalists and it is sur- 
prising how many already exist as such in the Empire. The de- 
mand for English-written books in China has increased fifty per 
cent, in the last five years, an indication of the trend of the intelli- 
gent Chinese mind.'' 




The testimony of these eight authorities indicate not only the 
wide division in Western opinion as to the character of the China- 
man and the needs of the Empire, but vividly portrays the varying 
sentiments of men of the Western world as to what the Empire 
needs most. Truly, indeed, has Miss Scidmore said : 

" It is a land of contradictions, puzzles, mysteries and enigmas." 

The chapter may well end with this further quotation from 
her pen : 

" No Occidental ever saw within or understood the working of 
the Yellow brain which starts from and arrives at a different point 
by reverse and inverse processes. We can neither feel nor com- 
prehend. There is little sympathy, no kinship nor common feel- 
ing, and never affection possible, between the Anglo-Saxon and the 
Chinese. China is very old, very tired, sick ! It craves rest and 
peace — anything for peace." 



CHAPTER II. 

General Survey of the Empire. 

China's Surface Much Greater than Britains — Many Thousands of Years of Antiquity 
Claimed — Density of Population Greatest Known— Labor Cheapest in the World 
Perceptive Qualities Remarkably Acute — Passive Resistance, the Law of the Na- 
tion—Moral Standard Peculiar — Love of Wealth a Marked Quality—Material Com 
forts Never Despised. 

I^HE surface area of the Chinese Empire is several times 
greater than that of Great Britain. The coast line exceeds 
2,500 miles and the land frontier 4,400 miles. The best author- 
ity obtainable gives the total area of the Empire as 4,567,000 
square miles. The two great mountain ranges are the Thsin-Ting 
or Blue Mountains and the Ning-Ling chain. The area drained 
by a single river of China — the great Yang-tse-Kiang River — is 
750,000 square miles. 

China claims for herself an antiquity of 2,271,256 years. 
Pan-Ku, the first man, chiseled himself out of chaos. It matters 
little whether his appearance on earth was a thousand centuries 
ago or just preceding the reign of Fuh-he, 2582 b. a, or of Yao. 
2356 b. c. age, the weight of thousands of decades of history, of 
customs which were not new when Christ was born, are upon 
China and her people. They and their manners, their position as 
the Yellow race, can only be truthfully understood by thorough 
appreciation of the fact that, while the history of the white race, in 
truth, commences with the birth of Christ 1,900 years ago, China 
at that time was at least 2,000 years old. 

EPOCHS OF MAN. 
Philosophers given to speculate divide all time that has been 
or is to be into three epochs. The first of these epochs is that of 
the domination of the Yellow Man dating from the beginning of 
all things to the inauguration of the Christian era. The second 
epoch is that of the white man, having its beginning with Christ 
and, according to the philosophers, ending about the coming year 
3,000 A. d., or 1,100 years from now. Then, according to some, is 

36 



36 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

to come the epoch of the black man, which will last 2,000 years or 
more, after which intermarriage will have so blended all races that 
there will come as the final rnler of the earth, in the dawn of the 
milleninm, a composite, neither yellow, white nor black, bnt for- 
ever holding in one hand the olive branch of peace and in the other 
the torch of knowledge. 

ALL FOREIGNERS REGARDED AS INTRUDERS. 

The Chinaman takes no stock in this dream. Make no mis- 
take about it that he concedes in any manner, form or shape that 
the white man is to dominate the Chinese Empire, let alone the 
world. His history and his religion teach him that he is the 
chosen of all people, and that the white man is but an intruder who 
eventually must be exterminated. Nothing received in his educa- 
tion, in his contact with the wit, wisdom and power of the empire, 
has ever taught him otherwise. He is as surely a product of his 
own type of civilization as the Englishman is of that which has 
prevailed in the British Isles since the Romans departed. The 
same natural laws which have evolved a Joseph Chamberlain in 
England, an Emperor William in Germany, a Crispi in Italy, a 
Kruger in the Transvaal, have produced a Li Hung Chang in 
China, have placed back of him an intellectual class with great 
wealth and power, and has for the foundation of all this millions 
upon millions of coolies or peasants. It is a mistake to approach 
the history of China on any other supposition than that the China- 
man has reached his position in the world as an individual or a 
part of an empire by any other than the same laws which in a dif- 
ferent climate, under different physical conditions, have produced 
the people of the United States or those of any other part of the 
world. In studying the Chinese question never assume that the 
Chinaman has not a legitimate right and place on earth. One 
may not admire or respect him. That is individual opinion. His 
right to justice is indisputable. The following table gives the 
population of the most important province of China and their area 
in square miles, showing also the density of population in China — 
the greatest known to any nation in the world : 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 



37 



PROVINCE. 

Pechili . 

Shantung 

Ho-nan . 

Kiang-su 

Nanwhei 

Fokien . 

Hupeh 







POPULATION 


ARKASQ MILES- 


POPULATION. 


PER SQ. MILE 


57,200 


36,880,000 


64O 


53,700 


29,600,000 


550 


67,000 


29,000,000 


430 


40,000 


39,600,000 


990 


54,000 


36,500,000 


67O 


46,000 


23,000,000 


500 


70,000 


28,500,000 


400 



The divisions of the Chinese Empire and their area in square 
miles with population according to the latest estimates are : 

China proper 

Corea . 

Manchuria 

Mongolia 

Tibet 

Kuku-nor and Tsaidam 

Kashgaria 

Zungaria 

Kulja 

Total 4,567,000 406,600,000 

The estimate of the population of China according to the 
races there is 

RACES. 

Chinese proper 
Si-ian, Mantze 
Coreans . . . 
Manchus . . . 
Tibetans . . . 



LEA SQ. MILES. 


POPULATION. 


1,556,000 


375,000,000 


115,000 


8,000,000 


380,000 


12,000,000 


1,350,000 


4,000,000 


650,000 


6,000,000 


120,000 


150,000 


250,000 


1,000,000 


120,000 


300, OOO 


26,000 


150,000 



Mongolians 



POPULATION. ; RACES. 

360,000,000 Tanguts, etc 

20,000,000 I Kashgarians .... 

8,000,000 I Kirghiz 

8,000,000 Solons, Dungans, etc. 



5,500,000 
4,000,000 



Europeans 



POPULALION. 

250,000 

750,000 

30,000 

60,000 

15,000 



LARGEST PROVINCE IN CHINA. 



The province in China having the largest population is that 
of Kiang-su. Its population is nearly 40,000,000. There are 
eighteen provinces in the Empire proper. The next largest prov- 
ince to Kiang-su is Pechili, with a population of nearly 37,000.000. 
The titles of the eighteen provinces and their areas are : 



38 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 



TITLE. AREA. 

Pechili 57,26o 

Shantung 5 3, 762 



TITLE. AREA. 

Hu-nan 83,200 

Shen-si 81,192 



Shan-si 65,949 Kan-su 259,520 



Se-shuen 184,997 

Kwang-tung 9°, 2I 9 

Kwang-si 81,200 

Yunnan 122,524 

Kweichew 64,554 

Island of Hainan i4>5°o 



Ho-nan 66,913 

Kiang-su ....... 40,138 

Nganwhei 5 3,980 

Kiang-su 68,875 

Fokien 45,747 

Che-kiang 35> 6 59 

Hupeh 69,459 

The area of China proper is 1,556,000 square miles. 

In 171 1 the population of China proper was estimated at 28,- 
600,000. In 1753 the estimate was advanced to 103,000,000. In 
1792 it was placed at 307,400,000. In 1842 it was supposed to be 
about 405,000,000. It is now generally placed at 4o6 ; ooo,ooo, al- 
though there has never been an accurate census taken. Some 
travelers think that if such a census were taken it might show that 
the population did not exceed 200,000,000. The chief towns of the 
provinces of China and their estimated population are : 

Pechili — Tien-Tsin, 920,000; Pekin, 500,000; Kalgan, 200,000; 
Paoting, 150,000; Tungchew, 100,000. 

Shangtung — Wei-hien, 250,000; Tengchew-fu, 230,000; Tsi- 
nan-fu, 200,000 ; Che-fu, 120,000 ; Yenchew-fu, 60,000 ; Laiyang-fu, 
50,000. 

Shan-si — Tiayuan-fu, 250,000 ; Yuenching, 90,000 ; Tung- 
kwan, 70,000. 

Shen-si — Singan-fu, 1,000,000; Hanchung-fu, 80,000. 

Kan-su — Lanchew-fu, 500,000; Tsingchew, 160,000; Sining-fu, 
60,000 ; Pingliang-fu, 60,000. 

Sechuen — Chingtu-fu, 800,000 ; Chungcheng-fu, 700,000 ; 
Suchew-fu, 300,000. 

Hupeh — Hankow, with We-chang and Ham-yang, 1,500,000. 

Hu-han — Siangtan-fu, 1,000,000; Changcha, 300,000. 

Nganwhei — Wuhu, 92,000. 

Kiang-su — Shanghai, 600,000 ; Suchew, 500,000 ; Yangchew, 
360,000; Chingkiang, 170,000; Nanking, 130,000. 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 39 

Kiang-si — Hukow, 300,000. 

Che-kiang — Hangchew-fu, 800,000; Shaohing, 500,000 ; Lanki 
200,000; Wenchew, 170,000; Ningpo, 160,000; Huchew, 100,000; 
Yuyao, 65,000. 

Fokien — Fuchew-fu, 600,000 ; Changchew, 500,000 ; Liang- 
kiang, 250,000 ; Yungping, 200,000 ; Tsongan, 100,000. 

Kwang-si — Wucliew, 200,000. 

Kwangtung — Canton, 1,500,000 ; Fachan, 500,000; Slinking, 
200,000, Tnngknng, 120,000; Shilung, 100,000; Pakhai, 15,000. 

Ynnnan — Ynnnan-fu, 50,000 ; Chaotnng, 50,000. 

Hainan — Kinnchew, 200,000; Lokni, 80,000. 

It is next to impossible to accurately present a statement of 
the revenues and expenditures of tke Empire. No statistics in 
regard to this subject are issued by tke imperial government in tke 
manner tkat tkose of Great Britain and America are made public. 
Provincial governors publish financial reports in the Pekin Gazette 
but these are only fragmentary. Nearly the entire revenue is col- 
lected by Mandarins or governors of the provinces. Their instruc- 
tions as to collections are received from what is known as the Board 
of Revenue, which has its headquarters at Pekin. 

FIXING THE TAX RATE. 

This board annually issues a statement to the Mandarins as to 
the amount of money required to be raised in each province during 
the ensuing year. To this amount is added the sum necessary for 
the local government of the provinces and then the Mandarin or 
collector knows the total of what he must raise. To this, for his 
own benefit, as he must live and his salary is exceeding^ small, 
he adds a considerable per cent and when that is done the people 
know what they must pay. While his action is arbitrary, in add- 
ing this per cent, for his own use, it is tolerated both by the imper- 
ial government and the people themselves. For the three years 
preceding the war with Japan it has been estimated that 88,979,000 
taels were collected for the Chinese government. The word tael is 
spelled in the Malay either " Tail " or " Tahil " and means weight. 
In the Hindu it appears as " tola " which also means weight. 



40 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

In Chinese it is the " Liang'' or ounce, equal to one and oik 
third ounces avoirdupois. It is the unit of monetary reckoning in 
China. It is a money of account (not a coin) and it is divided into 
ten mace, or one hundred candareens. Its value varies with the 
fluctuations in the price of silver bullion. A thousand Mexican 
dollars equals 720 taels. Conversely, a tael is worth about $1.33 
in Mexican money or about 66 cents in American money, so that 
the total revenue raised for the Chinese government in the three 
years preceding the Japanese war did not exceed $55,000,000 or 
about $18,000,000 per year. 

IMMENSE ROYAL EXPENSES. 

The expenditures for the same period equalled the revenues. 
From these, it is possible to determine that the expenses of the 
imperial household and governmental administration per year are 
about $4,500,000. The Board of Admiralty received the same 
amount annually for its care of the northern squadron. A similar 
sum per annum is granted the southern squadron. For railway 
construction during the three years mentioned, less than $200,000 
was appropriated, but the expenditures upon the troops in the 
eighteen provinces and the administration forces in these provinces 
equalled $7,000,000 a year. 

In the revenue account, nearly one-third of the amount realized 
came from the land tax. The grain tax was about one-twelfth of 
the total amount received. The duties on native opium and on salt 
are heavy. The land tax varies in different provinces and is 
charged per acre. Salt is a government monopoty, all producers 
being required to sell to government agents, who, at a price which 
covers the dut}^, resell to merchants provided with salt warrants. 
The Likin tax is one imposed on merchandise in course of trans- 
portation payable at appointed barriers. A producer's tax is now 
imposed, but the amount derived from it is not known. 

All collection of revenue in China on the foreign trade and 
care of the lights on the Chinese coast are under the administration 
of an imperial Customs Department, the head of which is Sir Rob- 
ert Hart, an Englishman. He has under him a large staff of 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 41 

European, American and Chinese subordinates. The collections 
of this department amounted in 1898 to nearly $17,000,000. The 
present debt of China was nearly all created by the recent war with 
Japan. 

The government in 1887 made a German loan of 5,000,000 
marks in gold at five and one-half per cent. In 1894 a foreign sil- 
ver loan of $8,000,000 was made at seven per cent. In February, 
1895, a third foreign loan in gold was raised. This amounted to 
$15,000,000. Other advances have since been made on the security 
of the customs revenue and aggregating $10,000,000. 

The government has also borrowed from local financial institu- 
tions $25,000,000. The war indemnity which it agreed to pay to 
Japan amounted to 200,000,000 taels, and in addition to this there 
was a compensation for the retrocession of the Leao-tong peninsula, 
amounting to 30,000,000 taels. To meet these two debts the gov- 
ernment in 1895 raised in foreign sources a loan of $79,000,000 at 
five per cent, and in March, 1896, raised an additional $80,000,000. 
Two years later to pay off the balance of the indemnity due Japan 
there was borrowed from English and German financial institutions 
$80,000,000 more, secured by the annual merchandise tax. 

GOVERNMENT LOANS NOT HEAVY. 

The Chinese loans are not excessive in these days of enormous 
national debts — in fact, they are insignificant. The total is placed 
at only 55,500,000 pounds, or, roughly speaking, $277,500,000. 
At least this is the total of all the loans placed with foreign 
nations, and as they are pretty well distributed in Berlin, Paris, 
Vienna, St. Petersburg and London, and possibly other monetary 
centers, no country could suffer much even by a complete default. 
The bulk of the loans are held in Great Britain, where Chinese 
credit has always been rated high, especially since Sir Robert Hart 
has been in China. The internal loans are not of much importance 
as affecting the outside world. 

As a matter of fact none of the loan bonds is now regarded as 
a good investment, though the Shanghai banks paid the coupons 
which fell due on July 1, 1900. China has always been in a tur- 



42 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

moil and it is by no means unlikely that the present troubles will 
be adjusted and the loans made good. 

It has been noted that China is essentially an agricultural 
country. The land is all freehold held by families on the payment 
of an anuual tax. Lands and houses are registered aud when a 
sale takes place the purchaser, on informing the Mandarin, 
receives, besides the document given by the seller, an official state- 
ment of the transfer for which he pays at the rate of six per cent of 
the purchase money. It is the law and custom, however, of the 
Empire that the head of a family cannot sell any land until all his 
near kindred have successively refused to purchase. As a rule, the 
land holdings are small. 

FARM ANIMALS AND CROPS. 

The farm animals most favored are the oxen and buffalo. 
Horticulture is a great pursuit and fruit trees are grown in a great 
variety. Barley, maize, with peas and beans are chiefly cultivated 
in the north and rice in the south. Three favorite crops in the 
southern provinces are sugar, indigo and cotton. Opium has 
become a crop of increasing importance. Tea is cultivated exclu- 
sively in the west and south. The districts in which it is cultivated 
are Fuchien, Hupeh, Hu-nan, Chiangshi, Chehching, An-hui, 
Kuang-tung and Szechuen. 

The culture of silk is ranked as of equal importance with 
tea. The best and largest quantity of silk comes from Kuang-tung 
and Szechuen, Chi-huang and Kiang-su. Cotton mills have been 
erected in Shanghai and filatures for winding silk from cocoons in 
Canton, Shanghai and elsewhere. In 1899 there were twenty-six 
filatures in Shanghai, which can reel off 12,000 picules in a year. 
Of the six cotton mills in Shanghai, two are operated by natives 
and four by foreign countries. The number of spindles erected in 
the city in 1898 was 313,000. 

All the eighteen provinces in the Empire contain coal and the 
mines make the country the first coal producing area in the world. 
Part of these mines are under foreign supervision. Others are 
controlled by native companies. Rich mines are found at Kaiping, 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 43 

also at Fang-shannsien. At the latter place the finest grade of 
anthracite is secured. The richest coal beds of Shantung are at 
Poshan. Coal is also found in Kan-su. In eastern Shan- si there 
is a field of anthracite with an area of about 13,500,000 square 
miles and in western Shan-si a field of bituminous coal of nearly 
equal importance. 

An English syndicate already controls the working of the 
mines in Shan-si. In southeastern Hu-nan the coal area covers 
about 21,700,000 square miles and contains both anthracite and 
bituminous coal. Thousands upon thousands of acres of rich coal 
fields have not yet been touched. No railroad construction into 
their area has yet been attempted. It is not an idle prediction 
that when these coal fields are opened, the American product will 
encounter a rival of no mean proportions. 

Iron ores are found in large beds in the Shan-si district. The 
iron industry there is of ancient origin. Iron in conjunction with 
coal has been extensively worked in Manchuria. Copper ore is 
plentiful in Yu-nan, and tin, lead and silver are also found. Many 
mining concessions have already been granted to English, French 
and German syndicates. 

OPPOSED TO THE USE OF MACHINERY. 

With this enormous natural wealth at hand, it seems surpris- 
ing to the foreigner that the Chinaman is so strongly opposed to 
the use of machinery. This opposition exists not only among the 
ignorant, but among the rich and well-educated. The explana- 
tion for the opposition is that it is founded upon social and eco- 
nomic conditions unlike those in any other part of the world. 
Every man in China is a worker and only by continued industry 
is he capable of feeding and clothing himself and his family. All 
branches of industry are full. There is never a lack of labor nor 
of work to do and " so nicely adjusted have become economic condi- 
tions through centuries of struggle that practical content reigns 
among the workers and an upsetting of the equilibrium of supply 
and demand produces wide-spread distress. 

" The labor is cheap. For that matter it is the cheapest in the 



44 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

world. Introduce a machine which, by the supervision of one man, 
would be able to do the work of ten men, and nine men are thrown 
out of work. The nine men then have no outlet for their industry 
because all branches of work are full. They must, therefore, 
starve, steal or emigrate." In this is the plain reason why, inde- 
pendent of the superstitions and false fears that have been aroused, 
China is opposed to machinery. In the great Empire a labor saving 
tool or machine is an economic curse and must remain so until 
conditions are greatly changed. If new industry is created by the 
introduction of machine^ without displacing the amount of labor 
now emplo}^ed, then the change cannot be harmful. 

Trade unions exist everywhere in the Empire. Long before 
the foreign trade union came into existence, the Chinaman, with 
keen preceptive qualities, devised his. These unions are all power- 
ful. Strikes are common in many industries, but generally peace- 
fully settled. Where natives employed by foreigners strike, other 
natives will not take their place and the work under way remains 
unfinished until the dispute is settled. Everyone in China is will- 
ing to work. Work is a written and an unwritten law of the land. 
Literally making no use of machinery, the Chinaman earns all 
that he receives by the sweat of his brow and is contented. 

The emigration from the Empire has been comparatively 
small when the total population at home is considered. Hostile 
legislation on the part of other nations has done much to check 
this emigration. But even without it, except to seek the United 
States, the tendency was not great on the part of the Chinaman to 
leave home. The latest figures as to the number that have emi- 
grated are : 



Russian Manchuria . . . . 20,580 

Japanese Empire 13,028 

United States 205,725 

British North America . . 22,850 
Peru, Brazil and Cuba . . . 195,000 
Guiana, West Indies . . . 16,500 

Sandwich Islands 14,500 

Other Pacific Islands . . . 20,000 
Australia 44,220 



British India, Mauritius, 

South Africa 19,000 

Philippines 250,000 

Dutch East Indies . . . .325,585 
Malacca and Straits Settle- 
ments 270,000 

Annam, French Cochin 

China 252,200 

Siam, Camboja, Burma . 1,620,000 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE 



45 



OUTER DIVISIONS OF THE EMPIRE. 

The divisions of the Empire outside of China proper are given 
herewith, with their area and estimated population. The first chief 
division is Tibet : 

Area in Estimated 

Sq. miles. Population. 

Tibet proper 650,000 6,000,000 

Kuku-nor and Tsaidam 120,000 150,000 

CHIEF TOWNS. 

L,assa 15,000 ] Chona-jong 6,000 

Shiga-tze and Tashi-lumpo. 14,000 Kirong 4,000 

Chetang i3>°°o j Shakia-jong 3>°° 

Gyanze 12,000 

The second division is Kashgaria : — Area in square miles, 
250,000; estimated population, 1,000,000. 

CHIEF TOWNS. 



Yarkan 60,000 

Kashgar 50,000 

Khotan 40,000 

Sanju ........... 35,ooo 

Aksu 20,000 

The third is Mongolia : 

Area in square miles 



Kiria 15,000 

Yangi-hissar 10,000 

Yargalik 10,000 

Korla , 6,000 



Outer Mongolia 
Inner Mongolia 



1,350,000 



Est. population. 
2,000,000 
2,000,000 



North Mongolia 



Mongolian Kansu . . 

South Mongolia attach- 
ed to Shan-si . . . 



Inner Mongolia attach- 
ed to Pechili . . . ( ] 



CHIEF TOWNS. 

r Urga 30,000 

Kobdo 3,°°o 

Uliasutai 3,°°° 

Khailar 3> 000 

Kerulen i,5°o 

c Urumchi 15, 000 

< Turfan 10,000 

I Hami 6,000 

( Kuku-khoto (Kweihua-cheng) 30,000 

I Dolon nor (Lama-miao) 30,000 

f Jehol (Chingte-fu) 40,000 

Paku (Pingchwen-hien) 20,000 

10,000 



46 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 



The fourth division is Zungaria and Kulja: 

Area in square miles. Est. population. 

Zungaria 120,000 300,000 

Kulja 26,000 150,000 

CHIEF TOWNS. 

Old Kulja 15,000 I Shikho 2,500, 

Suidum 4,000 Bulun-Tokhoi 1,700 

Chuguchak 4,000 Tultu 1,700 

Manas 3, 000 Karkara-ussu (?) 1,500 

The area and population of Manchuria are : Area in square 
miles, 380,000; estimated population, 12,000,000, 



CHIEF TOWNS. 



Province of Tsitsikhar 



Province of Liaotung 



Province of Girin 



( Tsitsikhar . . . 
< Aigun .... 
I Mergen .... 
f Mukden .... 

Ying-tze . . . 
J Takushan . . . 
^ Faku-rnin . . . 

Girin 

Ninguta .... 

Asheho .... 

Kaiyuen .... 

Bedune (Pituna) 

Swangchang . . 

Singminton . . 

Tienchwang-tai 

L,alin . . 

Ti'ling .... 

Sansing , . , , 



30, 000 
10,000 
5,000 
80,000 
40,000 
35,000 
12,000 
20,000 
60, 000 
40,000 
35,000 
30,000 
30,000 
30,000 
25,000 
20,000 
20,000 
15,000 



CHINESE WEIGHTS AND MONEY. 



The sole official coinage and the monetary unit of China is 
the copper cash of which about 1,600 — 1,700= 1 haikwan tael, and 
about 22 = 1 penny. The copper cash, however, has risen in value; 
the copper money purchasable for a tael of silver cost the govern- 
ment for metal alone 1,354 tael in 1898, and this appreciation of 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 



47 



copper has not only restricted coinage, but has led to the melting 
down of copper coin. The silver sycee is the usual medium of 
exchange. Large payments are made by weight of silver bullion, 
the standard being the Liang or tael, which varies at different 
places. The haikwan (or customs) tael, being one tael weight of 
pure silver, was equal in October 1898, to 2s. 10% d., or 6.93 haik- 
wan taels to a pound sterling. 

THE SILVER DOLLAR. 

By an imperial decree, issued during 1890, the silver dollar 
coined at the new Canton mint is made current all over the Empire. 
It is of the same value as the Mexican aud the United States silver 
dollars, and as the Japanese silver yen. Foreign coins are looked 
upon but as bullion, and usually taken by weight, except at the 

treaty ports. 

weight. 
1 Hu. 
1 Hao. 

1 Li (nominal cash.) 
1 Fun (Candaren.) 
1 Tsien (Mace.) 

1 Liang (Tael) = 1% oz. avoirdupois by treaty. 
1 Kin (Catty) = ij£ lbs. " " 

1 Tan(Picul)= 133^ lbs. 



10 Sze . . 


. equals 


10 Hu . . 


K 


10 Hao . . 


u 


10 Li . . . 


it 


10 Fun . . 


a 


10 Tsien . 


u 


16 Liang . 


u 


100 Kin . . 


(< 



CAPACITY. 

10 Ko . . . equals 1 Tou (holding from 6y 2 to 10 Kin of rice and 
measuring from 1.13 to 1.63 gallon. Commodities, 
even liquids, such as oil, spirits, etc., are commonly 
bought and sold by weight. 

LENGTH. 

10 Pun . . . equals 1 Tsun (inch.) 

10 Tsun . . " 1 Chili (foot) = 14. 1 English inches by treaty. 
10 Chih ... " 1 Chang = 2 fathoms. 
1 Li ... . " approximately three cables. 



In the tariff settled by treaty between Great Britain and China, 
the Chih of fourteen and one-tenth English inches has been adopted 



48 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

as the legal standard. The standards of weight and length var}^ 
all over the Empire, the Chih, for example, ranging from 9 to 16 
English inches, and the Chang (= 10 Chih) in proportion; but at 
the treaty ports the nse of the foreign treaty standard of Chih and 
Chang is becoming common. 

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS. 

China is traversed in all directions by numerous roads, and, 
though none are paved or metalled, and all are badly kept, a vast 
internal trade is carried on partly over them, but chiefly by means 
of numerous canals and navigable rivers. In February, 1898, the 
Chinese government agreed that all internal waterways should be 
open both to foreign and native steamers. 

In the north of China a considerable extent of railway (mostly 
British) has been constructed and is open for traffic. From Pekin 
to Tien-Tsin a distance of eighty miles, the line is open and thence 
to Tang-ku on the coast, a distance of twenty-seven miles. From 
Tang-ku it runs through the coal district to Shan-hai-kuan, 147 
miles, and thence along the coast, 113 miles, to Chen-Chou at the 
head of the Gulf of Liao-Tung. As the railway approaches Chen- 
Chou, two lines branch off, one of 7 miles from Kao Chiao to Tien 
Chiao Chang on the coast; the other runs 30 miles inland from Nu 
Err Ho to the Nan Pao coal mines. 

The total length of line open from Pekin to Chen-Chou, in- 
cluding the two branches, in December, 1899, was 404 miles. The 
line is being continued round the head of the Liao Tung Gulf to 
Yung Kow, where the system will be connected by a Russian branch 
line with the railway which is being constructed from Port Arthur 
and Talienwan to the Siberian railway. Another prolongation of 
the British line is being laid from Chen-Chou to Hsin Min Tun, 
106 miles to the north-east, and about 40 miles west of Mukden. 
The Russian railway through Manchuria is being constructed and 
will probably be completed in 1902. The main line will have a 
length of 950 miles, and the South Manchuria branch to Port 
Arthur 650 miles. Towards the south-west, Pekin is connected 
with Pao-ting-fu, the capital of the province of Chihli, by a line 88 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 49 

miles in length, from which, at Liu Li Ho, a branch runs to the 
Chou Kow Tien coal fields, ten miles distant. 

The Pao Ting Fu line, constructed with British capital, was, 
in January, 1900, transferred to a Belgian syndicate, and will be 
extended southwards to Hankau on the Yang-tze river. From the 
Yaug-tze another projected line (American) will run to Canton. 
Railways (British) are to be constructed also for the development of 
the mining and petroleum industries of the province Shan-si, and 
others to connect the Ho-nan mines with the Yang-tze river oppo- 
site Nanking, via Kaifong. 

The Shanghai-Wusung railway of 12 miles has been open for 
traffic since August, 1898. From Shanghai a projected line will be 
run to Hang-chau, Ningpo, Wen-chau and probably to Canton. 
Other lines (British) are to connect Chingtu in the province of 
Szecheun with Wuchau and with Canton. French lines are pro- 
posed to bring Ton-king into communication with the treaty ports 
of Mengtsz, Wuchau and Pakhoi, and also with the province of 
Yunnan. 

IMPERIAL TELEGRAPH LINES. 

The imperial Chinese telegraphs are being rapidly extended 
all over the Empire. There is a line between Pekin and Tien-Tsin, 
one which connects the capital with the principal places in Man- 
churia, up to the Russian frontier on the Amur and the Ussuri ; 
while Newchwang, Chifu, Shanghai, Yangchow, Suchau, all the 
seven treaty ports on the Yangtze, Canton, Wuchau, Lungchau, 
and all the principal cities in the Empire are now connected with 
each other and with the capital. The line from Canton, westerly 
has penetrated to Yunnan-fn, the capital of Yunnan province, and 
beyond it to Manwyne, near the borders of Burmah. 

Shanghai is also in communication with Fuchau, Amoy, Kash- 
ing, Shaishing, Ningpo, etc. Lines have been constructed between 
Fuchau and Canton, and between Taku, Port Arthur and Soul, the 
capital of Corea; and the line along the Yang-tze valley has been 
extended to Chungking in Szechuen province. The telegraph lines 
have a length of nearly 4,000 miles. There is direct overland 
communication between Pekin and Europe. 
4 



50 



GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 



The postal work of the Empire is carried on under the Minis- 
ter of War by means of post-carts and runners. In the eighteen 
provinces are 8,000 offices for post-carts, and scattered over the whole 
of the Chinese territories are 2,040 offices for runners. There arc 
also numerous private postal couriers, and during the winter a ser- 





VIEW OF TIEN TSIN, CHINA. 

vice between the office of the Foreign Customs at Pekin and the 
outports. 

The Chinese Imperial Post Office was opened on February 2, 
1897, the management being confided to the Inspector-General 
of the Imperial Maritime customs. China has also notified 
the Swiss government of her intention of joining the Universal 
Postal Union. 



CxENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 51 

The status of the foreign powers in China as to territory oc- 
cupied by them is : 

The Island of Formosa was ceded to Japan in accordance with 
the terms of the treaty of peace ratified and exchanged on the 8th 
of May, 1895. The formal transfer of the island was effected on 
the end of June, 1895. 

In November, 1897, tne Germans seized the port of Kiau-Chau 
on the east coast of Shantung, and in January, 1898, obtained from 
the Chinese a 99 years' lease of the town, harbor and district. By 
agreement with the Chinese government, dated March 27, 1898, 
Russia is in possession of Port Arthur and Talienwan and their 
adjacent territories and waters, on lease for the term of 25 years, 
which may be extended by agreement. 

Within the territories and waters leased Russia has sole 
military and naval control, and may build forts and barracks as 
she desires. 

TERRITORY AND SEAPORTS. 

Port Arthur is closed to all vessels except Russian and Chinese 
men-of-war ; part of Talienwan harbor is reserved exclusively for 
Russian and Chinese men-of-war, but the remainder is freely open 
to merchant vessels of all countries. To the north is a neutral 
zone where Chinese troops shall not be quartered except with the 
consent of Russia. The territory acquired here by Russia has been 
formed into the Russian province of Kwang Tung. For such period 
as Russia may hold Port Arthur, Great Britain is, by agreement 
with China, April 2, 1898, to hold Wei-Hai-Wei, in the province 
of Shangtung. 

For defensive purposes Great Britain has, in addition, obtained 
a 99 years' lease of territory on the mainland opposite the island 
of Hong Kong. To compensate for these advantages given to the 
Russians, British and Germans, the Chinese government granted 
to the French in April, 1898, a 99 years' lease of the Bay of Kwang- 
Chau-Wan, on the coast of the Lien-Chau peninsula, opposite the 
island of Hainan. In November, 1899, China conceded to France the 
possession of the two islands commanding the entrance of the bay. 



52 GENERAL SURVEY OF THE EMPIRE. 

This territory has been placed under the authority of the Governor- 
general of French Indo-China. 

The law of the nation in regard to aggressions from the ex- 
terior has been that of passive resistance — passive resistance until 
the strain became too great and outbreak was necessary. The 
practice of this passive resistance has bred in the Chinaman a dis- 
position or habit of going around to gain his ends rather than 
traveling a straight course. Perhaps this is one reason why his 
moral standard is so different from that of the Western world. The 
moral ideal of the Chinaman is not the moral ideal of the American 
or European. Their conception of duty is not our conception. As 
Elisee Reclus says : 

" If the Chinese government has for ages succeeded in holding 
fast by the traditional forms, if the disasters of Tartar conquest and 
intestine convulsions have but slightly affected the outward frame- 
work of society, it is none the less true that the Eastern world will 
now have to learn from European civilization not only new indus- 
trial methods, but especially a new conception of human culture. 
Its very existence depends upon the necessity of shifting its moral 
stand-point." 



CHAPTER III. 
The Recent Massacre of Foreigners. 

The Boxers Regard Murder as Justifiable — The Most Powerful Known Secret Society- 
Origin of the Word' Boxer and Meaning — Methods of Torture of Victims — Natural 
Hostility to all White People- The Tai-Ping Society— Battle of the Foreign Min- 
isters in Pekin — Death of Baron Von Ketteler. 

c 

WU TING FANG, the Chinese minister at Washington was 
asked : " What is the meaning of the term ' Boxers ' in 
Chinese, or what is its derivative analysis ? " 

He replied : " I have seen from the Chinese papers that the 
local word applied to the people that your papers call the 4 Boxers ' 
is ' Yee-ho-chuan.' ' Yee ' means i righteousness.' ' Ho' means 'har- 
mony.' ' Chuan ' means ' fists ' ' Yee-ho-chuan ' would therefore 
involve the righteous idea of promoting harmony by the fists, the 
righteousness res utttug" "from the harmony, with the fists as an 
incidental means to a good end. The term undoubtedly arose in 
connection with athletic sports and teachers of the art of boxing or 
defense by the fists." 

The Caucasian may s be inclined to sneer at the simplicity of 
this definition, but it is not to be forgotten that as a matter of in- 
disputable history the word " righteousness" and the word " right" 
have a foundation in the Chinese vocabulary more solid than rock. 
Any one who has had intimate and honest business relations with 
Chinamen in this country knows that. A Chinaman in this country, 
who has not yet learned the worst features of American or English 
or German commercialism, in his dealings with his white brother 
invariably starts out with the query, " What is right? " He puts 
it in his own way, but that is what he means, and he never betrays 
until he has been betrayed. 

BOXERS ORIGINALLY SHEEP HERDERS. 

The Chinaman before he became an agriculturist was a sheep 
raiser and herder. His word for truthfulness, uprightness, that 
which stands for righteousness, is composed of two parts — the first 

53 



54 THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 

and the second forming the phrase " my sheep," apparently point- 
ing to a time when upon the rightful ownership of flocks — demon- 
stration of the same — one was in the right, therefore upright, 
therefore had a righteous cause. Transpose this to possession of 
the land of China, for which the great powers are now uncovering 
their armaments, and the Boxers use of the word " righteousness ' 
does not seem so far-fetched. The word "right" in the Chinese 
tongue is from u tsze," meaning u one's own,'' and "yang," meaning 
" sheep." Make that land, or the privacy of the home, or the right 
to worship Confucius, or the right to resist foreign invasion, and 
the error is difficult to detect. 

The Boxer, therefore, by all justification of his past, "right- 
fully" uses his fist for defense of his own, and when he becomes 
heated in passions, it is not surprising if for the fist he substitutes 
a weapon. Nor is it surprising, if looked at with dispassion, that 
in killing the invaders he fails to draw a discriminating line be- 
tween Caucasian missionaries, railroad engineers, diplomats or 
soldiers. In his mind they all stand for the same thing — invasion 
and conquest. Of course, whether slaughter involves killing Boers 
in South Africa, Indians in the United States or missionaries in 
China, the killing is morally wrong. But there may be partial 
justification at times. 

« UP WITH THE CHING DYNASTY." 

As to what the Boxer is, competent testimony comes from 
various sources. Edwin Wildman, late vice-consul of the United 
States at Hongkong, says : 

" They are divided into lodges and have common signs and 
passwords known only to themselves. They have certain methods 
of interrogating each other and recognize peculiar manners in plac- 
ing cups and dishes at the table ; of wearing their garments and 
saluting each other. They hold their meetings usually in secluded 
places in the dead of the night and draw blood from their bodies, 
mixing it with water and pledging each other to oaths of vengeance 
against their enemies. The Boxers have adopted a flag bearing 
the motto : 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 55 

( UP WITH THE CHING DYNASTY 
AND DOWN WITH THE FOREIGNER.' 

" The foreign tradesman in China, to the mind of the native 
is a barbarian and the average celestial is incapable of turning 
back the pages of history and restoring idol worship and burnt 
sacrifices. The Boxer believes in immortality and in a heaven- 
sent mission. He is a foe to fear, and the present alarm felt by 
all foreigners in China is fully warranted." 

Anyone sincerely anxious to learn the truth about the Chinese 
people, to say nothing about the Chinese situation, has by no 
means an easy time of it. The Chinaman might find it as hard 
to recognize himself as the " Yankee " does when he beholds his 
caricature in a foreign novel or as when an honest, faithful French 
wife and mother is shocked at the heroine of Parisian fiction. Do 
even the foreigners in China comprehend the Chinaman ? Cer- 
tainly not very profoundly. For they almost uniformly belittled 
and even ridiculed the warnings of the recent uprising. 

MISSIONARIES TAKEN BY SURPRISE. 

A letter from Mr. Quackenbush, agent at Shanghai of Carder, 
Macy & Company, of New York, says : 

" The storms have been gathering in Shantung for many 
months. The average foreigner coming here for business, mining 
or railroad concessions, is too apt to think the Chinese ' must go ' 
before modern civilization. Some months ago the attention of our 
minister at Pekin, Mr. Conger, was called to the state of affairs in 
Shantung, and the American Association of Shanghai wrote to 
the State Department a strong letter on the subject. Mr. CongerV 
own dispatches show that he had been very credulous, not under- 
standing the Asiatic." 

And in one or two instances where foreigners were sufficiently 
frightened to leave the country they were ridiculed for their fears, 
which, perhaps, prevented others leaving, especially where they 
would have to abandon lucrative positions. 

But even the missionaries, who come so close in contact with 
the native, were taken by surprise, and hundreds have paid the 



56 THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 

penalty for their ignorance of what mnst have been going on 
around them. Some of them may have foreseen it all, but heroic- 
ally stayed to survive or perish with their converts. But this 
could not have been true of the many who tried, but failed to escape. 
Their contradictory and conflicting opinions as to the origin 
or occasion of the war, its probable duration and results, also show 
a want of comprehension of these people. Some attribute it to a 
hatred of the missionaries ; some to a hatred of all foreigners ; 
some to a mixture of fear and hatred of everything foreign ; some 
to a political revolution against the dynasty, the foreignphobia 
being rnerety an excuse or pretext. Some predict that it will easily 
be put down by a European army. Others with equal sincerity 
and earnestness declare that Europe will never again hold or influ- 
ence anything more than a few seaports ; that China will never 
again admit the foreigner inland or make it safe for him to live 
there, and that missionary enterprises are ended forever, 

CHARACTER OF THE BOXERS. 

There are two decided differences of opinion about the Boxers. 
Some declare them to be the mere " scum " and " hoodlums " of 
the nation — thieves, rowdies, rioters led by a few fanatics. Others 
describe them as agitators and reformers. The Boxer movement, 
as such, being a movement against the corrupt government, against 
the plutocratic aristocracy of which Li Hung Chang is a prominent 
representative. They hate the foreigner because in their minds 
he is associated with the government that has admitted him and 
'sold their country to him. They are the bone and sinew of the 
country, and are determined to save it from the clutches of the 
foreigner. They have attracted to them, as revolutionists always 
do, the lawless, the fierce, the riotous and ungovernable. But the 
Boxer himself is only a patriot, with a patriot's zeal. 

The Chinese craftiness, their guile, their talent for lying also 
impresses itself upon the average foreigner. But others declare 
that this is only conventional or strategic immorality, Chinamen 
do not lie to each other, but only to the foreigner, who is an enemy 
He can be easily deceived, therefore it is just as right to deceive 



THE RECENT xMASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 57 

him as it would be any other foe that you want to get the better of. 
In business, some say, the Chinese are just as truthful and honest 
as any other nationality. Hundred of people in California feel 
more confidence in him than they do in American dealers, while 
he is the frequent victim of American extortion and fraud. 

WONDERFUL CHINESE PUZZLE. 

The prospect of understanding the Chinaman and his Chinese 
puzzle is therefore not very promising. But it is not at all strange. 
How few races of alien languages and traditions do comprehend 
each other. How few care much whether they do or not. They 
do not want their habits of life or of thought disturbed by the inva- 
sion of other ways and modes. Their vis inertia resists the task of 
change. It even objects to changing its ideas of other nationalities. 
It requires too much exertion to think of the Englishman or the 
Frenchman, the German or the Russian, as any other than what a 
superficial acquaintance has photographed him. 

It is doubtful if even the Englishman that lives in the United 
States without becoming naturalized and so taking a vital personal 
interest in the land and its people, fully comprehends us, and if 
the foreigner here does not speak our language it is through his 
children in our schools, rather than through his own intercourse, 
that he becomes acquainted with the American people. 

We are a nation of nearly 80,000,000, scattered over 3,700,000 
square miles. The foreigner who met only the Louisianian would 
have a very different idea of the American from the foreigner who 
met only the Vermont Yankee or the Kentucky mountaineer. China 
has 400,000,000 people, with no such means of intercourse as those 
which network the United States. 

Few who have visited China have striven to look at its myriad 
millions, its complex social relations, its wonderful moral code, 
through Chinese eyes. Not in the spirit of the student but in that 
of the curiosity-seeker, the speculator and the lust for gain has 
China been approached. It is probably true that the Oriental and 
the Occidental can never be one u in heart," but the world is large 
enough for each to live upon in peace. 



58 THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 

TERMS USED IN THE BOXER REBELLION. 

For the aid of those who may have studied the Chinese puzzle 
without mastering all its intricacies, there is given a key to all the 
important names used in the Boxer rebellion. This will not only 
aid in understanding many of the Chinese terms used in this his- 
tory, but with the assistance of the glossary at the end of the work, 
one may secure a fairly intelligent comprehension not only of the 
outbreak, but of the Chinese tongue. The key is : 

Boxers, The — A secret society in China. The correct name is 
" Big Sword," so called from the weapon used by its members. 

Bruce, Rear Admiral, English — Second in command on the 
China Station. 

Chan Chi Tung — The leader of the provincials. A man of 
strong character, and a pure and patriotic official. Viceroy at 
Hankow. 

Chang Yi — Director of mines for the Province of Pechili, and 
x\ssistant Director of the Northern Railways 

Chao Shu Chiao — Commissioner of the Railway and Mining 
Bureau, and a recent addition to the imperial cabinet. He is anti- 
foreign. 

Chen Pao Chen — The late governor of Hu-nan, a progressive 
man, who was degraded in 1898. He had encouraged the study of 
English in the schools of Chang-shah, and had recommended to the 
Emperor one of Kany Yu Wei's followers, named Tan, who was 
one of the first to be beheaded by the usurping Dowager Empress. 

Chefoo — Treaty port, province of Shantung, China. Popula- 
tion 120,000. Close to Wei-hai-wei. 

Ching, Prince — Chinese general who is said to have secretly 
supplied the besieged legations with food and ammunition. 

Cologan, Senor de — Spanish minister to China. 

Conger, E. H. — American minister to China. 

Corvejolles, Rear Admiral — Commanding French squadron. 

Fu — A Prince's palace. 

Fungtien — i. e., " Ordained of Heaven." One of the three 
provinces of Manchuria. The name was made by way of compli- 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 



59 



inent after tlie Man elms became rulers of China. Mukden is the 
capital. 

Futai — Governor of a province. 

Gaselee, General Sir A. — Commands British Indian contingent 
in China. 

" General of the Nine Gates " — A name applied to the governor 
of Pekin. 

Giers, M. De — Russian minister to China. 

Hart, Sir Robert- 
Director of Chinese Im- 
perial Maritime customs 
since 1885, and probably 
the most important Eng- 
lishman in China. 

Helung Kiang — The 
northernmost of the three 
provinces of Manchuria. 
Capital, Tsitsikar. 

Ho-nan — Province of 
China in which the Box- 
ers made great headway. 

Kang Yi — Chinese 
general, who assisted 
Prince Tuan and others 
in the attacks on the le- 
gations. DON BERNARDO DE COLOGAN, 

Kang" Yll Wei The Spanish Minister at Pekin. 

exiled leader, of the reform party in China, who is now in Sing- 
apore. 

Ketteler, Baron von — Murdered German minister to China. 




KIRIN, THE MANCHU PROVINCE. 

Kirin — One of the three provinces of Manchuria, of which the 
town Kirin is the capital. 

Kwang Su — The Emperor of China, sou of Prince Chun, who 
was the brother of Emperor Hsien-Fuug. Born in 1872. 



60 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 



Li Hung Chang — Viceroy at Canton. The most shrewd poli- 
tician in China. 

Lin Kun Yi — Viceroy at Hankow. A Chinese official of high 
repute. 

MacDonald, Sir Claude — British minister to China. 
Manchu — The name of the reigning power in China. The 
word signifies " clearness" as of water. The previous dynasty was 
named " Ming" signifying brightness as of light. 

Nankow Pass — The 
last mountain gateway 
on the road from St. 
Petersburg, through 
which Pekin is approach- 
ed from the north. Pekin 
is a day's ride south. 
The Great Wall crosses 
it at right angles. 

N e w C li w a n g — 
Treaty port, province of 
S h i n g k i n g, in Man- 
churia. Population 60,- 
000. Three miles above 
the town Russia has es- 
tablished a new town for 
the terminus of its rail- 
way. 

Nissi, Baron — Japanese minister to China. 
Nieh — Chinese general and a leader of the Boxers. 
Pekin — From about 1282 the northern capital of China on the 
Pei-ho, 100 miles from the coast. It is divided into three parts — 
the " Chinese City," the " Tartar City," and the " Imperial City." 
The latter contains the " Forbidden City " or residences of the 
Emperor and court. It is surrounded by walls fifty feet high. 
Pichon, S. — French minister to China. 
Port Arthur — The naval base of Russia in the far east. 
Seymour, English Vice Admiral E. H. — Proceeded in the Ter- 




MICHAEL V. GIERS, 
Russian Minister at Pekin. 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 



61 



rible from Natal to Hong Kong, and tried vainly to relieve Pekin 
from Tien-Tsin. 

Shanghai — The largest and most important of the treaty- 
ports. Population 600,000. 

Sheng — Taotai of Shanghai, Administrator of Telegraphs and 
Railways, and head of the Imperial Bank of China. 

Son of Heaven — Name applied to the Emperor. 

Tien-Tsin — Treaty port of China on the Gnlf of Pechili, 
eighty-six miles south- 
east -of Pekin. 

Tsi An— The Em- 
press Dowager, aged 65 
and widow of the Em- 
peror Hsien-Fnng, who 
died in 186 1. The pre- 
sent Emperor is not a 
blood relation of the Em- 
press Dowager. 

Tnan, Prince — Grand- 
son of the Emperor Taon 
Kwang, and President of 
the Boxers, or Big Sword 
society. He is father of 
the heir apparent and at- 
tempted to usurp the im- 
perial power on June 20, 
1900. 

Tung Fuh Siang — Chinese general, whose troops assaulted 
the legations. 

Ying Kuo Fu — The British legation. It used to be a Prince's 
palace, or " fu." 

Yuan Shi Kai — Governor of Shantung, in which province 
most of the Boxer outrages have taken place. He is the military 
ally of the Empress Dowager and an opponent of the Emperor's 
reform plans. 

Yung Lu — Ex- Viceroy "of Pechili and a progressive official to 




s. PICHON, 
French Minister at Pekin. 



62 THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 

whom the Emperor owed the preservation of His life at the time of 
the coup d'etat. He is bitterly hated by Nieh, Tung and other 
Boxer generals. Until the usurpation of Prince Tuan he was gov- 
ernor of Pekin. 

Wei-Hai-Wei — British naval base in China, leased by Chinese 
in 1898. 

CRUELTY LIKE THAT OF THE TIGERS. 

No country is more peaceable than China. No people more 
amiable. In no land are kindness, gentleness, courtesy, self-sacri- 
fice and long-suffering so held up as the ideals of human life. 
Nevertheless, beneath all those, or accompanying them, is a cruelty 
which borders upon the ferocity of the tiger. 

To the Chinese mind an enemy is a crimiual of the worst 
class. The rules which apply to criminals apply to captives. To 
understand the treatment of Christian missionaries, American, 
European and Japanese soldiers and sailors and other prisoners of 
war, it is necessary to understand the treatment of those who have 
been convicted of serious offenses, on what we would term in com- 
mon law felonies. The good old Anglo-Saxon rule that a man 
shall be supposed innocent until proven guilty has less meaning 
in China even than in France. Every criminal trial in the Celes- 
tial Empire makes the Dreyfus case pale by contrast. Every kind 
of testimony is admissable, so conviction is a matter of course in 
nearly every case. But — why no one can tell — the Chinese law 
prescribes that a person convicted shall not be punished, but shall 
be kept in jail upon a low diet until he confesses. 

Then, with a sarcasm which is simply devilish, it adds that 
where the criminal is perverse the magistrate may employ torture 
to obtain the confession required by law. The punishments are 
more varied than those so grimly described by Dante in his Inferno. 

Yet terrible as are the tortures which the Chinese are said to 
have inflicted upon their unhappy victims, it does not seem more 
horrible than the story told by Mrs. E. B. Drew, wife of the British 
Commissioner of Customs at Tien-Tsin, who was in that city dur- 
ing the bombardment by the Boxers.* She describes the manner 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 65 

in which the Russian troops conducted themselves in their invasion 
of the Empire. She says : 

" During the bombardment we lived most of the time in the 
cellar of our house. Our house was partially wrecked by big 
shells. Sleep was out of the question most of the time, and so 
unstrung were we that but little food satisfied us. There was ever 
present the haunting fear of the Chinese triumphing and slaugh- 
tering every foreigner and convert. 

PREPARED FOR THE WORST. 

" Some, probably all, of the women were prepared to act in 
case the Chinese effected an entrance. But, aside from the un- 
pleasant recollection, it appears the allied officers were prepared to 
act. I did not know it at the time, but I understood that ten or 
twenty men had been detailed to kill all the foreign women in case 
the Chinese were the victors. 

" The Russian troops pillaged, looted, tortured and murdered 
right and left. There were many infants and childreu killed by 
bayonet thrusts. And many were tossed from bayonet points only 
to be caught and again tossed time and again. There is ample 
evidence of these unspeakable occurrences. 

"And about Chinese women. They were mistreated and mur- 
dered in house after house. It seemed as if nothing could stay the 
mad frenzy of these Russians. 

" Out from Tien-Tsin, along the Pei-ho and Yellow rivers are 
numerous little villages. The Russians swept through the villages, 
destroying life and property. In these places they also tossed in- 
fants and other children in the air from bayonets. And every time 
this child-tossing tragedy was indulged in the dead body of a 
mother, father, or both were hard by. The Russians also drove 
women and children into the Pei-ho and Yellow rivers where they 
were drowned. 

" After shooting and murdering to their hearts' content, the 
Russians would pillage, loot and burn every house that caught 
their eye. There was no attempt at concealing all of the remark- 
ably barbarous conduct. 



64 THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREICxNERS. 

CHILDREN BAYONETED AND SHOT. 

" I do not pretend to say How many women and children were 
butchered by the Russians. I never heard the number estimated, 
save that a great many had been bayoneted and some shot. 

" In view of what they had been guilty of in and around Tien- 
Tsin, none of us were surprised to hear of a murderous act by the 
Russians at Taku. It is generally accepted as true at Tien-Tsin 
that the Chinese commander of the Taku forts was murdered by 
the Russians when he was in the act of surrendering his sword." 

It is perhaps not to be wondered at that the Chinaman is not 
very respectful to the representatives of the Christian religion and 
the ministers of Christian nations within the Empire. 

In studying the history of the Boxer uprising two previous 
revolts within the Empire must be considered. The first is that of 
the Tai-pings which had its origin in 1848. The Tai-pings repre- 
sented a new departure 011 the part of the Chinaman in the work of 
national development. They were reformers. They were China- 
men who were opposed to the Manchu dynasty. In 1848 the 
dynasty attempted an innovation in some of the religious ceremon- 
ials of the Empire. The Tai-pings — the title meaning simply the 
members of a secret society of that name — objected to this change 
in ceremony. The result of their objection was a general outbreak, 
in which religious passion, class interest and hatred took part. 
The revolt started in the Kwangsi valley and extended through all 
the southern provinces. In time it reached Tien-Tsin. 

A new kingdom was proclaimed within the Empire called that 
of " Great Peace " or the Tai-ping. Nanking was chosen as its 
capital and given the name of Tien-king, or " Heavenly Abode." 
There is little question but what this revolt would have overthrown 
the Manchu dynasty and given China more progressive and modern 
rulers than she has to-day, if it had not been for the wrongful in- 
terference of the foreign powers, especially England, urged on to 
this course by selfish commercial interests. The English and the 
French united, brought their troops into China, and declared for 
the Manchu dynasty. 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 65 

The Tai-pings were practicing a part of the Christian religion. 
In their proclamations they were using the English language, so 
far as they were able to. They offered official positions to foreign- 
ers. Despite this evidence on their part to bring China under the 
best foreign influences, they were opposed by the very foreign 
factors they sought to conciliate and were eventually overthrown. 
The Manchu authorities supported by English and French guns 
recaptured all the important cities that had been taken by the 
Tai-pings and then followed wholesale butcheries, sustained, if not 
approved, by Christian nations. The Empire was saved but the 
revolt was by no means extinguished. The Boxer uprising in 
many forms has been but a continuation of the Tai-ping revolt. 

In 1855 the Pamthay insurrection took place. This first grew 
out of a quarrel between some Buddhist and Mohammedan miners 
at Shiyang near the source of the Red river. This is in the prov- 
ince of Yannan where the Mohammedans predominate. It was the 
Mohammedans who were called by the Buddhists Panthayist. The 
western end of the province was entirely conquered by the rebels 
and held for a time. As the revolt grew it took on the customary 
form of opposition to the Manchu dynasty. It was finally over- 
come by treachery on the part of its own members and the dynasty 
was once more triumphant, on the surface at least. Attention is 
called to these revolts because they laid the foundation in part for 
the Boxer uprising and because other similar uprisings will take 
place in the future, until the Manchu is dethroned. 

FANATICS MURDER MISSIONARY BROOKS. 

In January, 1900, a missionary by the name of Brooks was 
killed by Chinese fanatics. These fanatics were members of the 
Boxer Society and this murder is taken to be the initial point from 
which the uprising of the spring and summer started. It was not 
until June, though, that wholesale slaughter of native converts 
commenced. These culminated on June 16th in the murder of 
Baron von Ketteler, the German minister at Pekin. Baron von 
Ketteler was formerly connected with the German legation at 
Washington, He was married to an American woman, Miss Led- 



66 THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 

yard of Detroit. He was a man of extraordinary physical courage 
and great ability. On the afternoon of June 16th he ventured forth 
from the German legation building within Pekin and was assaulted 
by a mob of Boxers, who dragged him from his horse and killed 
him. His death provoked from the German Emperor this remark- 
able speech delivered at the time of the sending of German troops 
to China to avenge the death of the minister : 

CRIME OF HORRIBLE BARBARITY. 

" The firebrand of war has been hurled in the midst of the 
most profound peace. Unhappily this was to me not unexpected. 
A crime of unspeakable insolence, horrifying in its barbarity, has 
been committed against the person of my trusty representative and 
has taken him from us. The ministers of the other powers hover 
between life and death, and with them comrades sent for their pro- 
tection. It may be that while I speak they have already fought 
their last fight. 

" The German flag has been insulted and the German Empire 
treated with contempt. This demands exemplary punishment and 
vengeance. Events have moved with frightful rapidity and have 
become profoundly grave and still graver. Since I called you to 
arms what I hoped to effect with the help of the marine infantry 
has now become a difficult task which can only be fulfilled with the 
help of the serried ranks of all civilized states. 

" This very day the commander of the cruiser squadron has 
asked me to consider the dispatch of a division. You will have to 
face an enemy who are no less courageous than yourselves and 
trained by European officers. The Chinese have learned the use 
of European weapons. 

" Thank God, your comrades of the marine infantry and my 
navy when they have encountered them, have proved true to the 
old German battle cry. They have defended themselves with 
glory, have won victory and have done the duty committed to them. 

" I now send you out to avenge the wrong and ill. Do not 
rest until the German flag, joined to those of the other powers, 
floats triumphantly over China's flag, and until it has been planted 



THE RECENT MASSACRE OF FOREIGNERS. 67 

on the walls of Pekin to dictate peace to the Chinese. Yon will 
have to maintain good comradeship with all the other troops whom 
you will come in contact with over yonder. Russians, British and 
French all alike, fighting for one common cause — for civilization. 
We must bear in mind too, something higher — namely, our religion 
and the defense and protection of our brothers out there, some of 
whom stake their lives for the Saviour. Think also of the honor 
of our arms. Think of those who have fought before you ; go forth 
with the old Brandenburg motto : 

" ' Vertrau auf Gott, Dich tapfer wehr, 
Darin besteht dein ganze Ehr, 
Denn wer auf Gott herzhaftig wagt, 
Wird nimmer aus der welt gejagt.' '' 

WHAT THE EMPEROR QUOTED. 

The following is a free adaptation of the old German sayings 
repeated by Emperor William : 

" Trust in God, stand bravely, 
This is the whole of thy honorable duty, 
For who, helped by God, dares battle heartily 
Is never driven from the world." 

Early in the Boxer crisis it became apparent that diplomacy 
could not bring about a solution of the grave problem, unless on 
the basis of the Chinese terms, impossible of acceptancy by Europe 
or the United States. Then it became a question of the use of 
force, but international jealousies immediately came to the surface. 
While these were in the process of more or less permanent adjust- 
ment, much valuable time was lost and the Boxers gained great 
strength, having possession of Pekin, the railroad between Pekin 
and Tien-Tsin, Tien-Tsin, and the Taku forts. Their conduct was 
undoubtedly encouraged by the Dowager Empress who is not a 
China woman and who hates the foreigners. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Ruling Powers of China. 

Wonderful Dynasties of the Empire — Story of Their Origin — Cruel Power of the Emperor— 
The Mysterious Grand Council — Influence of Women Over the Emperors — Sacred 
Attributes of the Rulers — Kotowing — The Han Dynasty— Length of Life of the 
Dynasty — Emperor Controls Land and Water. 

THE dynasty is everything to the political and the social life of 
China. One can imagine that the reigning honse of Hanover 
in England might pass from existence and a Republic succeed the 
Kingdom without any great overthrow of the habits and customs of 
the English people, but in China theoretically the state is a large 
family. Historians repeatedly note that the Emperor is at once 
" father and mother " of his children, and the affection due from 
them to him is that of a two-fold, filial piety. As Elisee Reclus 
notes : 

u If the Emperor commands, all hasten to obey ; if he requires 
the life or property of a citizen, both must be surrendered, with a 
sense of thankfulness." 

The Emperor may even control land, water and the air for the 
invisible genii all execute his mandates. He is the " son of hea- 
ven," the sovereign of the " four seas " and of the " ten thousand 
peoples." He is the head and front of the dynasty that prevails, 
whatever its title may be. The Emperor alone has the privilege of 
sacrificing to heaven and earth as the high priest and head of the 
great Chinese family. In " The Earth and Its Inhabitants "it is 
said: 

" He speaks of himself in lowly language, as an ( imperfect 
man ' and is distinguished amongst the grandees of his court by his 
modest garb ; but he accepts the most extravagant expressions of 
worship. Present or absent, he receives from his subjects divine 
honors and the highest dignitaries fall prostrate before his empty 
throne, or before his yellow silk umbrella adorned with the five 
clawed dragon and the turtle — emblems respectively of good fortune 
and power." 
68 



:$m*\ 



■ 





V 













• 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 



6d 



INCENSE BURNED FOR HIM. 

The Mandarins burn incense on the receipt of an imperial dis- 
patch. They strike the ground with their head turned toward 
Pekin. His name is so revered that the signs used in writing it 
can no longer be employed for other words without being modified 




RELIGIOUS CEREMONY IN A JOSS-HOUSE. 

by a diacritical mark. All of his proclamations terminate with the 
sentence : 

" Tremble and Obey." 

All beneath him are his slaves. At the time of the expedition 
of Hue and Gabet, the representative of the Emperor in Tibet wore 
the chains of a criminal in the form of a gold necklace concealed 
under his robes in token of the imperial displeasure. It is not 
mere politics that leads the people of China to so venerate the head 



70 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 



of a dynasty. One must understand that all the national institu- 
tions are so constructed as to establish a perfect parallel between 
the deities of a son and the deities of a subject. The Chinaman 
learns from his earliest childhood until the day of his death that 
the paternal authority belongs to the head of the great family of 
the state as well as to the head of the lesser family in which he is 
a son. 

The great dynasties of China and their proper titles and peri- 
ods have been : 



Yao Dynasty 2356 B. C. 

Shang Dynasty 1766 B. C. 

Chow Dynasty 1566 B. C. 

Wang Dynasty 255 B. C. 

Han Dynasty 206 B. C. 

Eastern Han Dynasty . . 23 A. D. 

Wei Dynasty 220 A. D. 

Western Tsin Dynasty . 265 A. D. 

Sui Dynasty 590 A. D. 

Tang Dynasty 618 A. D. 

Teang Dynasty .... 907 A. D. 



1 



D. 



i 907 a. 

to 
960 A. D 



Later Teang Dynasty 
Later Tang Dynasty 
Later Tsin Dynasty . 
Later Han Dynasty . 
Later Chow Dynasty 
Kins Dynasty .... 
Yuan Dynasty . . . 
Ming Dynasty . . . 
Manchu or Tsing Dy- 
nasty , 1644 A. D. to 1900 A 



J 



965 A. D. 
1263 A. D. 
1368 A. D. 



D. 



TWO DYNASTIES NOT CHINESE. 

The Chinese royal family consisted originally, in the present 
generation, of seven princes. Two of these are dead. Of these 
princes one only succeeded to the throne. At his death his son 
reigned for a short time, when he died, and the throne was given 
to the son of the seventh prince, who is now supposed to be in 
possession, save for the Empress Dowager. 

The present Chinese dynasty came into power in 1644. It is 
called the Tsing dynasty, the word " Tsing " meaning purity. 
The royal family is not of Chinese blood, but Manchu. The pre- 
ceding dynasty was the Ming dynasty, "Ming" meaning bright. 
The royal family in the Ming dynasty was of pure Chinese blood. 

For a short time previous to the Ming dynasty the Empire 
was ruled by a Mongolian royal family known as the Yuan 
dynasty. The Yuan dynasty and the present Tsing dynasty are 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 71 

the only two dynasties in the history of China in which the royal 
families have not been Chinese. 

Emperor Tao-kwang, who was the father of the seven princes 
of the present generation of royalty, was the sixth Emperor in the 
Tsing dynasty. He was succeeded on the throne by his fourth 
son, Prince Hien-fung, who was known as the seventh Emperor. 
This prince married a wife and she had one son, Tungchi. While 
his first wife was still living he took a second wife, Tsu Hsi, the 
present Empress Dowager. 

Tung Chi became the eighth Emperor. He is said to have 
been very wild and dissipated. His reign lasted but a short time 
and he died in 1875. The imperial family were divided as to who 
should succeed to the throne, and some time elapsed before the 
question was settled. The Empress Dowager made the selection, 
choosing Beileh Kwang Su, son of the seventh Prince, Chung. 

REIGN LASTING TWENTY-NINE YEARS: 

Tuen Tson Hsi, the Dowager Empress, and Kwang Su, her 
stepson, lived for twenty-nine years in the innermost precincts of 
the Pekin palace, and thence ruled over the vast dominion of the 
Chinese Empire from the Yellow Sea to the great Himalaya-girt 
table lands of Tibet. 

Kwang Su is the official title of the " Son of Heaven." His 
human name is Tsai Tien, but on ascending the throne, in accord- 
ance with the custom of the country, he assumed a " Kwoh hao,' 
or imperial name. Kwang Su means "illustrious succession." 
By Chinese law the Emperor is to be known by his " Kwoh hao " 
and it is a criminal offence for any of his subjects to pronounce his 
family name once that his imperial title has been promulgated. 

Tsai Tien was born in 187 1. He is the son of Prince Ch'un, 
the seventh brother of the late Emperor Hien Fung, and he suc- 
ceeded to the throne by proclamation on the death of the Emperor 
Tung Chi. He was then four years old. There is no hereditary 
law of succession in China. The Emperor selects the ruler who is 
to follow him from among the members of his family of a younger 
generation than his own, Hien Fung died suddenly without nidi- 



72 THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

eating his wishes in this direction, and the selection of the 
" Hwang-ti " fell to the will of the Empress. 

From that time the Empress Dowager has been the real mon- 
arch of China, and the Emperor a mere puppet in her hands. 
Such imperial duties as he performs are either purely empty func- 
tions or in pursuance of orders from his aggressive and brainy 
stepmother, who rules the throne of China with an iron rod. 

ONE THOUSAND GIRLS TO CHOOSE FROM. 

In 1889 Tsai Tien was married. His wives were selected by 
the Dowager Empress. His marriage was no simple affair. One 
thousand of the prettiest Tartar girls in the Empire were picked 
out by the viceroys and Mandarins and shipped to Pekin. They 
were sent in blocks of five to Tuen Tson Hsi, who weeded out the 
ugly ones in each lot and retained the prettier. By this process 
the thousand Tartar girls were reduced to 100, and this number to 
fifteen, and this last number to three. Of these three the prettiest 
was chosen for the state of Empress, and the remaining two were 
married to the Emperor as secondary wives. 

The wedding took place in February, 1889, which is the 
month of the Chinese new year. It was a magnificent ceremonial 
and cost not less than $5,000,000. The girl chosen for Empress 
by the Dowager was her niece, Yet-ho-na-la, the daughter of a 
Manchu general, Knei Hsiang. Tsai Tien is small and frail- 
looking, but he has a bright keen eye and is possessed of unusual 
intelligence. The Dowager holds him in grand control. She sup- 
plies him with feasts and amusements of all kinds, surrounds Jiim 
with pretty girls and directs his mind toward every pursuit save 
that of affairs of state. These she attends to herself, with the aid 
of Li Hung Chang, her favorite, whom she held in power or re- 
stored when he was defeated b}^ enemies. 

United States Minister Denby, the predecessor of Minister 
Conger, described the Emperor as having an air of intelligence 
and gentleness, somewhat frightened and melancholy. His face 
is pale, and though distinguished by refinement and quiet dignity, 
it possesses none of the forces of his martial ancestors, nothing im- 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 73 

perial or commanding. He has the characteristic Manchu features, 
oval shaped, with a long and narrow chin, sensitive mouth, thin, 
nervous lips, straight nose, highly-arched eyebrows, large thought- 
ful eyes, well-shaped forehead and a head of a size larger than the 
average. 

He is fond of music, especially of the piano, upon which he is 
himself a performer of no mean order. 

Tuen-Tsou-Hsi's father was a poor man who sold his daughter 
when she was a girl to a Mandarin. She became a scrub girl in 
this official's house, but soon found favor with the Mandarin's wife, 
who promoted her to the embroidery rack. She learned the art 
rapidly and attracted the attention of the Mandarin himself, for 
whom she had embroidered a robe. 

GREAT BEAUTY AND INTELLIGENCE. 

Tuen-Tson-Hsi possessed great beauty as well as intelligence 
and the devotion shown her by the official aroused the jealousy of 
his wife. To pacify his spouse the officer arrayed the slave girl in 
gorgeous attire and sent her as a present to the Emperor. The 
fame of her beauty spread abroad and the Emperor desired that this 
marvel of pulchritude be brought before him. Soon afterward the 
Empress died suddenly and the slave became mistress of the 
Chinese throne. 

On the death of her imperial consort, Tuen-Tson-Hsi took 
the reigns of government in her own hands and established 
something not unheard of even in China — practical petticoat 
rule. Her ministers are required to " kotow " to her — that is, 
touch the floor with their foreheads nine times without rising from 
their hands and knees. She does not permit them to see her face 
but sits behind a screen during her audiences. 

It is said that her ministers are kept in a state of terror by 
the sudden death of any among them who disagrees seriously with 
the dowager. Poison is hinted at and it is believed that Tuen- 
Tson-Hsi puts many a man out of the way by use of the same im- 
plements. Prince Tuan is a son of the late Emperor Hien Fung 
and is a cousin of Tsai Tien. 



74 THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

The rise of the Mancliu race to its present position in the 
politics and affairs of the world is a wonderful story of courage, 
battle-field victories, dark treachery and indomitable perseverance. 
In the middle of the fifteenth century the race consisted of three 
small tribes living near the borders of what is now the Chinese 
Empire and only escaping the designation of nomads, because in 
the winter months, they had some settled home- Even in those 
days they were known and feared by the surrounding tribes for 
their daring, their contempt for death and their willingness to run 
any risk to add to their herds and possessions. 
\* 
THE MANCHU DYNASTY AND ITS HATREDS. 

Gradually as they grew in power and influence, they began to 
absorb neighboring people until at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century they had become the most populous and powerful race on 
the borders of the Celestial Empire. 

Since their birth as a nation the Chinese had harassed them 
continually and border troubles had grown thick and fast. A 
century of persecution bred in the hearts of these people such a 
hatred of the Chinese race that they gradually began to long for a 
sweeping and terrible revenge. In the year 1601 the Manchus 
were possessed of a standing army composed of hardy fighters, and 
for fifteen years after that the project of an invasion of China was 
thoroughly discussed and finally arranged. 

In 1616 the forces of the two nations met on the borders, and 
in what came to be known as the " Yang Wah Sui " — the battle of 
the Terrible Blade — the Chinese were completely routed. The 
conquerors crossing the border at its northwestern extremity, rav- 
aged the towns and villages of the Empire for hundreds of miles, 
and in three years had secured and held in subjection a section of 
territory as large as their own possessions on the other side of the 
boundary. In 1619 the Chinese, led by the Emperor Hwi Nang in 
person and numbering, it is estimated by the chroniclers of those 
days, 240,000 troops, advanced to give battle to the invaders. The 
fight lasted four days, and the Chinese forces were literally cut to 
pieces. The Emperor was killed and half his army was destroyed. 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 75 

Even after this great victory the Manchus felt their way very 
cautiously. They advanced along toward the interior slowly and 
deliberately, capturing and pacifying district after district, and care- 
fully refraining from any rapid movement in a country densely 
populated by hostiles. In 1627 a new king ascended the throne of 
China. Hundreds of thousands of his subjects congregated in the 
Yang-tze-Kiang valley for a celebration in connection with his 
accession. 

The invaders chose their time and swooped down on them, 
cutting the dikes of the Yang-tze-Kiang river and spreading 
death and desolation everywhere. Awed by the calamity and the 
menace of a strange and powerful people in their midst, great 
jnumbers of Chinese came over to the enemy and openly avowed 
allegiance to their conquerors. The new Emperor was a weakling, 
with none of the instincts of a soldier, and believing that the time 
was ripe for a master-stroke the invaders began to push on to Pekin. 

In the year 1643 t ' le y reached the walls of the forbidden city, 
with every foot of the country that lay between them and their 
own native land not only under subjection but enjoying a fairly 
good government. There was never any more deliberate or better 
planned conquest in the history of the world. Before the Manchus 
advanced from a captured district it had been practically made a 
part of their own nation. If they could not accomplish this change 
in one year they waited five. 

THE STREETS RAN WITH BLOOD. 

In front of Pekin the invaders halted for two months. One 
night traitors opened the gates of the city and for twenty-four 
hours the thoroughfares ran with blood. The palaces and all 
vestige of Chinese authority were swept away, and by the year 
1644 China's first Manchu ruler ascended the throne. 

The dynasty has remained there from that day to this. Instead, 
however, of stamping its impress on the country or bringing with 
it any changes in the life or methods of the Chinese, its Manchurian 
customs have almost completely died out and the Chinese litera- 
ture, religion and habits have thoroughly transformed the con- 



76 THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

querors. And, more than that, the Chinese have actually overrun 
Manchuria and so stamped it with the Chinese hall-mark that the 
Manchu nation, as a nation, has been practically wiped off the map. 
Though China has obtained this mild-mannered revenge on 
the invaders, the very great mass of the people have never been 
reconciled to the conquering dynasty, and the whole southern and 
southeastern part of the Empire, with its teeming millions of 
people, may be likened to a smouldering volcano, ready at any 
moment to break out into rebellion and place a Chinese family on 
the throne. In the whole 250 years since the Ming dynasty began 
to rule, this determination has been kept steadily alive. 

REBELLION SUPPRESSED BUT NOT KILLED. 

The great Tai-ping rebellion, in spite of all the terrible 
charges that were laid at the door of the rebels and generally 
believed, was treated by the European governments in a manner 
that they are now beginning to realize was entirely wrong. Eng- 
land and France, failing to see in it the uprising of a great national 
spirit, which could never be kept down permanently, sided with the 
Tsing dynasty, and it was this assistance that saved the throne and 
smothered the rebellion. What has Europe won from it? Only 
the bitter hatred and scorn of the race that it saved and kept in 
power. For thirty-five }^ears the Manchus have dealt back dagger 
thrusts and insults for every kindness showered upon them. 

It is the general sentiment among white people who have lived 
among the Chinese and who claim to understand some little about 
their motives and their ambitions, that China will never be in a 
settled condition until this Manchu dynasty has been exterminated 
or banished once and for all and the old Chinese line of Emperors 
seated on the throne. The great province of Sze Chuan is the head 
and front of the Tai-ping power, a power that is steadily growing 
and patiently making for its ultimate object — the overthrow of the 
line that usurped the throne 250 years ago. 

The Chinese who stand for a return of the old kings occupy a 
vast stretch of territory covering an area of 90,000 square miles, 
with its northern boundary extending 250 miles along the Yang- 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 77 

tze-Kiang and running south in an irregular breadth of from 300 
to 360 miles. The provinces embraced in this section of the 
Empire contain from 92,000,000 to 94,000,000 people. And these 
millions ever keep alive the belief that some day they will be able 
to rise again and do away with the Manchu dynasty. 

These people are intelligent fatalists ; they never quarrel with 
facts. And their patience is as deep as the sea. They will wait 
for the opportunity, and when it comes they will strike. 

WEDDED TO A CENTRAL GOVERNMENT. 

From the formation of the first dynasty to the present time the 
Chinese have been absolutely knit to a central government by a 
highly elaborated system, civil and military. It is the chief ambi- 
tion of the rich and poor alike in every part of the Empire to be 
identified in some way with the government. The poor make all 
kinds of sacrifices in order that their sons may be educated to pass 
the civil service examination and thousands come from the distant 
provinces for the trial which is for the humblest as well as the 
highest Chinese or Manchu of any district. It is in this way that 
the great viceroy Li Hung Chang rose from small beginnings and 
because he and his brothers were all distinguished in examinations 
their mother was highly honored. 

No nation sets a higher value upon education, in none does it 
establish a closer connection between the people and the state. 
The Emperor is considered to be the head and source of the whole 
system and reverence for him is universal. Such is the veneration 
that attaches to his office, no matter who the incumbent may be, a 
change of persons or a change of dynasties would leave the system 
practically intact. In their present state the Chinese would not 
know how to get along without it. Modifications that have been 
made upon the idea of centralization have really tended to give it 
strength. In practice each province enjoys a large measure of 
home rule and bothers itself little about the other provinces. It 
may not be affected by a rebellion in one of the other provinces, 
whose suppression is the peculiar duty of the latter's own govern- 
ment or viceroy. 



?8 THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

But such diversity by keeping local affairs distinct, increasing 
the liberties of the provinces and limiting their responsibilities, 
makes unity under the imperial rule. With this explanation it is 
quite plain why dynasty after dynasty has held such remarkable 
control of the population and the power of the Emperor has been 
beyond that of any other potentate in the world. 

All power being centrally lodged in the Emperor the good or 
ill-treatment of the people has depended upon his good or bad qual- 
ities. Upon the latter there has never been a constitutional or leg- 
islative check. The Emperor makes his own course and that of 
his people. The good Emperor Yu, twenty-two centuries before 
Christ, had a census taken. China then possessed nine provinces. 
He had maps of these nine provinces engraved upon nine bronze 
vases. These vases were deposited in a temple and were supposed 
to secure the crown to their possessor. 

THREW THEM INTO THE RIVER. 

Three hundred years before Christ another Emperor, whose 
throne was threatened, threw the vases into a river, not only to 
prevent them from falling into the hands of his enemies, but also 
to make his hold upon the throne secure. He accomplished the 
latter end, although his armies had more to do with this than the 
vases. 

The Han dynasty which came into power shortly after the 
birth of Christ created for the people a topographic office, called the 
Chi-fang-shi, to which was entrusted the first survey of the land in 
the preparation of the maps. This was of great value to the peo- 
ple, although from the mathematical point of view the work done 
was almost valueless. The measurements lacked precision, illus- 
trated to-day by the li or unit of distances. The li is usually esti- 
mated at one-third of a mile but in many provinces it nearly 
approximates the English mile, and 185, 192, 200 and 250 are var- 
iously reckoned to the degree. 

The imperious rule of the Emperors who have been unjust is 
not better illustrated than in a story of the Emperor Che Hwang- 
ti. In his reign the writing of books on arts and sciences had just 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 79 

begun. H\vang-ti was advised by bis ministers tbat it was much 
better for tbe people tbat tbey sbould learn tbe traditions of tbe 
past and cling to tbe education of tbe past and tbat tbe new works 
sbould not be given them. He, therefore, issued an order tbat all 
books should be burned except those containing records of his own 
reign. He ordered also that all those who dared to speak of the 
objectionable books should be put to death and their bodies exposed 
in the market place. Still a further order was that those who 
should make mention of the past so as to blame the present should 
be put to death along with their relatives. 

MUST BE BRANDED AND SENT TO LABOR. 

The last part of his edict provided that any one possessing the 
forbidden books after the lapse of thirty days from the issuing of 
the edict should be branded and sent to labor on tbe great wall for 
four years. Tbe result of this edict was that nearly five hundred 
scholars who failed to obey the mandate of the Emperor were 
beheaded and literature of incalculable value to the China of then 
and the China of to-day was destroyed. 

It remained for the Han dynasty, which succeeded that of 
Hwang-ti to reverse his destructive order and to give every encour- 
agement to men of letters. The dynasty which succeeded the Han 
dynasty again reverted to the policy of punishing scholars and 
destroying literary works of merit. 

There is an unwritten law in China in regard to the Emperor 
which runs; 

" And whom he will, he slays ; 
And whom he will, he keeps alive." 

The people have never departed from this belief, and so long 
as they cling to it the Emperor's rule or the rule of the ministers 
of the dynasty, who may control him, will be as arbitrary and 
unjust as evil passions can suggest. It is owing to this absolutism 
tbat a society such as the Bow Wong Weui has an existence. Its 
story will illustrate to what extent tyrannical power has incited 
rebellion within the Empire. The leader of this society is Kang 



80 THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

Wti Wei. The membership is variously estimated at from one 
hundred to three hundred thousand. 

Its object is to overthrow the power of the present Dowager 
Empress and restore the Emperor to his throne, or to place a 
Chinese Emperor on the throne — one who is not of Manchu origin. 
The membership of this society has been made up from native 
Chinamen, who at one time or another have been arrested without 
a warrant or cause by order of imperial officials, and whose homes 
have been robbed and destroyed, whose families have been mal- 
treated and many of whose relatives have been driven by govern- 
mental persecution out of the Empire-and into foreign lands. 

EMPEROR FAVORS REFORMS. 

The present Emperor is known to be in favor of many gov- 
ernmental reforms opposed by the Dowager Empress and her 
clique. When the Boxer movement started and the Dowager Em- 
press assumed the reigns of government and opposed the Emperor, 
six of his principal advisers were beheaded by her order. They 
were all men of ability, willing and anxious to bring China into 
direct contact with the Western world and to ameliorate the present 
condition of the Chinese people. 

Two of the Emperor's advisers escaped the wrath of the 
Dowager Empress and the anti-foreign element by fleeing. These 
two were Kwang-Yu-Wei and Laing-Chi-Chao. A heavy reward 
was offered for their capture, whether they should be taken alive 
or dead, and the price is still upon their heads. The dynasty, if at 
all vicious in character, has the opportunity to make far greater 
trouble for the common people than can the ruling powers of gov- 
ernments such as England, Germany, or those of the Latin gov- 
ernments. The Chinese people themselves have a hundred times 
been held responsible for outbreaks against what the Western world 
calls civilization, which in truth they were not opposing, but the 
dynasty. 

This assumption of power by the Dowager Empress is not the 
first time that China has been influenced, for weal or for woe, by a 
woman. There are precedents for her action. Nearly seven hun- 



fHE RULING POWERS OF CHIFA. 



si 



dred years after the beginning of the Christian era, at the time of 
the death of the Emperor Tai-tsnng, the imperial power was seized 
by a woman. This woman was the wife of Kaou-tsung, and her 
name was Woohow. She gained supreme influence in the man- 
agement of affairs during the life of her husband, and aft the time 
of his death she put aside his lawful successor, Chung-tsung, and 
took possession of the throne. 

At that time the Chinese frontier extended as far as eastern 
Persia and the Caspian sea. The fame of the nation was so great 
that ambassadors visited its court from Rome, Persia and other 
nations. Woohow governed the Empire with far more discretion 
than the present Dowager Empress. She sent her armies to fight 
the Tibetans and regained from them the districts of Kuche, Kho- 
pen and Kashgar. She re-established the imperial government in 
the west, and her generals gained great victories over the enemies 
of the Empire in the north-east. She was a strong and powerful 
ruler, and not unacceptable to the people. 

SHE POISONED HER HUSBAND. 

After her death her son, Chung-tsung, attempted to assume 
the throne from which she had kept him, but his wife was as am- 
bitious as her mother-in-law had been, and a little more like the 
Dowager Empress of to-day. She poisoned her husband and set 
her son Juy-tsung on the throne. He was weak and vicious, and 
reigned but three years, at the end of which time both he and his 
mother disappeared from history. There are many other instances 
of women controlling the policies of their husbands, the Emperors, 
who yet did not come into the prominence of the examples cited. 
It has not been an uncommon thing for the Emperors to pay more 
attention to concubines in their palaces than to their lawful wives. 

Some of these concubines, or illegitimate wives, sanctioned by 
the Chinese law of conduct provided for the Emperor, have been 
women of good impulses and high character despite their ignoble 
positions and their influence has been for good. Others have been 
unprincipled and ambitious. Lew Pei, who at one time assumed 
to be the rightful sovereign of the entire Empire, is said to have 



82 THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 

been controlled by one of these women of hnmble origin who after- 
wards deserted him and became the mistress of the famous Chinese 
general Sze-ma E, of whom the Chinese historians say that " he 
led armies like a god." The false woman informed him of the 
weak points in the army of Lew Pei, and he became the victor. By 
this woman Sze-ma E left a son, Sze-ma Chow, who became as dis- 
tinguished as his father. 

A NOTORIOUS PIRATE. 

When the Tartars, the ancestors of the members of the present 
ruling dynasty, were gaining their control of China they were 
much harassed by the celebrated pirate, Ching Che-chung. He 
kept up a predatory warfare against them on the coast. Finally 
he was brought to their terms and into their service by their send- 
ing to him a princess who promised to become his wife if he would 
yield allegiance to the Manchu invaders. Her beauty was such 
that he yielded. Just before the accession to the throne of the 
Emperor Tung-che, or about 1872, for a short time China was gov- 
erned by the present Dowager Empress and the three other wives 
of the deceased Emperor. The Dowager Empress took care that 
her three rivals should speedily disappear and she become in fact, 
if not in name, the dominating power in the Empire. 

It is scarcely possible for the will of the Emperor to be thwarted 
from outside of his own court, there being so many impediments 
to approach between him and the common people. The Grand Coun- 
cil, whose functions have lately been largely usurped by the Tsung- 
li-Yamen, has been one of the many intermediary bodies between 
the Emperor and the people, which has prevented proposals for 
reform reaching his ears. This Grand Council is supposed to be 
composed of five prime ministers and the Dowager Empress. Its 
proceedings are of such an important character that its meetings are 
always held at between three and four o'clock in the morning in 
the inner chambers of the imperial palace. 

Before it all documents and papers, which originally were in- 
tended for the Emperor's eye, first come and are passed upon. It 
is decided in these sessions, which usually last each day until six 



THE RULING POWERS OF CHINA. 83 

o'clock in the morning, as to what shall be communicated to the 
Emperor and what shall not. Often imperial decrees are prepared 
and taken to him without his having the slightest knowledge of the 
reasons for the decree or even what the decree contains. The present 
Emperor has been so completely surrounded by the anti-foreign ele- 
ment and his enemies that it has not been possible for him to 
create strong friendships, nor to secure a court faction strong in his 
interests. How strong or how weak he is it is impossible for the 
Western world to judge. 

GOVERNMENT PERVERTED TO EVIL PURPOSES. 

The Grand Council with its mysterious sessions has been able, 
up to the present time, to rule the Empire from the anti-foreign 
point of view and to give a superb illustration of what a dynasty 
may become in the hands of evil persons. Few dynasties in China 
have lasted over two hundred years. They seem to run out in 
vigor and strength at the end of that time. Their Emperors, as a 
rule, at the inception of a dynasty are strong. Rulers of the land 
and water in the eyes and minds of their subjects, they have every 
opportunity given them to elevate and advance their people. 

For a brief period this is attempted, then princes of debased 
habits come into control, and the nation is plunged into insurrec- 
tion and rebellion fatal to the peace of the people and disastrous to 
all foreigners within their range. So many sacred attributes are 
given to the Emperor by the religion and the law of the land that 
if he be for the right, his power is little short of superhuman. If 
he be for the wrong, his power for evil is as great as that of the 
" devils " all Chinamen fear and consign to the purgatorial regions. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Influence of Legends. 

China's Mind Permeated With Mysticism— Fables and Legends Created by Native Priests- 
Efforts of Confucius to Show the Truth— Story of the Three Virgins— Five Points of 
the Compass — Origin of the Earth— Creation of Man— Story of the Rose— Power of 
the Winds— Venus and the Sun. 

INFLUENCED as the Chinese mind has been since the first days 
by legends, it is little wonder that the successive dynasties 

have gained such extraordinary control over them and that the 
present, or Manchu, dynasty was enabled to engraft itself upon the 
Chinese monarchical tree so easily. The Chinese have divided the 
pre-historic ages into three periods corresponding with those of the 
Western archaeologists. They say that Fu-Hi made weapons of 
wood ; Thin-Ming, weapons of stone and Shi-Yu, weapons of metal. 
But after iron implements were introduced the stone arrow-heads 
were still supposed to possess a symbolic virtue and in the hand of 
the sovereign regarded as emblems of royalty. With the beginning 
of their authentic history, 4,000 years ago, the people of the Chi- 
nese Empire worshiped natural objects. Good or evil spirits were 
supposed to produce rain, thunder, lightning, the terrible typhoons, 
the wrath of the waves and the beneficence of the sunshine. Evil 
spirits were only to be propitiated by prayer and sacrifice. 

Special deities were found in trees, rocks, running waters, the 
earth and the seas. Above the earth was a heaven filled with 
angels or demons. Man himself was held to be a god, although the 
feeblest of his kind. He could only guard himself against all the 
other gods by supplications and conjurings. The popular mind 
created a hierarchy. In this there was Tien, or " heaven," envel- 
oping the earth, encompassing all nature, illuming it with its rays. 
Then came Shangti, or " Supreme Lord." The active principle of 
universal nature is opposed to Ti or the " earth " which receives 
and matures the germs. It is now more than 300 years since 
European scholars began to quarrel about the true meaning of this 
84 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 85 

term " Shangti " applied to heaven, and they ask whether it may 
be translated by the word " God " taken in the theological sense. 

The evolution of all religious thought in China started directly 
from the basis of spirit worship. 

CONSTANT PRAYERS AND PETITIONS. 

The Chinese have always imagined themselves surrounded in 
the atmosphere and in natural objects by genii and have constantly 
offered them prayers and petitions for protection. The head of a 
patriarchal family of olden days offered these genii food and per- 
fume as a peace token. Such a religion as this had no place for a 
priesthood. No revelations having been made from above, no inter- 
preters of the divine word were needed, but it came to be that a 
hierarchy corresponding with that of the spirits themselves was 
naturally developed in the social body. On the Emperor was 
bestowed the privilege of presenting offerings to heaven and earth, 
to the chief rivers, and to the sacred mountains of the Empire 
which from age to age have varied in number from five to nine. 

The early feudal lords sacrificed to what were called the sec- 
ondary deities, while ordinary people offered their petitions to trees, 
rocks, streams. 

The priesthood came with the growth of the social hierarchy 
and served to develop the appetite of the national mind for fables. 
This belief in impossible things led to propitiatory sacrifices. 
Hundreds of courtiers at times caused themselves to be buried alive 
in order to accompany their master to the other world. When 
Hoang-ti died 200 years before Christ, several of his wives and body 
guard followed him to the grave and 10,000 working men were 
buried alive around his funeral mound. Witchcraft was sometimes 
guarded against by throwing new born babes into running waters. 
A Mandarin once put a stop to this practice in his province by 
causing several of the infanticides to be cast into the river Kiang, 
charging them to convey his compliments to the water gods. 

According to a writer in Illustrazione Italiana, there is and has 
been for centuries a widespread belief in China that some moment- 
ous event will happen in that country whenever Venus passes over 



86 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 



the sun, and, as a conjunction of Venus and the sun took place 
only a few months ago, he pointed out that the terrible events 
which have j ust occurred in China will surely, at least in the popu- 
lar imagination, be connected with and very probably ascribed to 
this meeting of the two celestial orbs. 

As a proof of this statement he refers to a remarkable event 
which occurred in 1875. In January of that year Tung-ce, the pre- 
decessor of the present 
" son of heaven," became 
seriously ill, and the 
court physicians, after 
many consultations, 
gravely informed the 
Tsung-li-Yamen that 
their august patient could 
not recover unless the 
dome of the Catholic 
church at Petang were 
destroyed. This church 
is not far from the wall of 
Pekin and its dome, which 
had recently been con- 
structed, was an eyesore 
to many court officials. 
The missionaries con- Chinese mandarin. 

nected with the church were duly informed by the Tsung-li-Yamen 
that the dome must be removed, whereupon many discussions 
took place, during which the Emperor died. A few days afterward 
the missionaries received private information that no more would 
be said about the dome as the cause of the monarch's death had 
been discovered, the court astrologers, after many laborious cal- 
culations, having come to the conclusion that this lamentable event 
had been caused by the passage of Venns over the sun, which had 
just taken place. The belief that some very important event will 
take place whenever there is a transit of Venns shows how inclined 
the Chinese mind is to superstition. The astrologers profit by this, 




THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 87 

THE SUN AND VENUS RESPONSIBLE. 

It was not alone the Emperor's death which impelled the 
astrologers to spare the Petang dome, but also the fact that a few 
days later the young Empress committed suicide. That two events 
of such magnitude could be due to natural causes Chinese sooth- 
sayers would not believe, and therefore they unhesitatingly held 
the sun and Venus responsible for the untimely decease of the 
Emperor and Empress. 

That some very unusual events would occur about this time 
seems to have been clearly foreseen by the young Emperor of 
China. According to the Manchester Guardian, his distress of 
mind began in December, 1897, when the astronomical board of 
Pekin reported to him that there would be an eclipse of the sun on 
the next New Year's day in China. 

According to celestial tradition this announcement was a warn- 
ing to him that he had not conducted himself wisely, and that 
some terrible thing would happen to him and to his country if he 
did not mend his ways. Desiring to avert the wrath of heaven, 
" he at once issued an imperial decree, in which he declared him- 
self to be filled with a great fear and to be devoting his leisure to 
strenuous self-examination ^in the hope that he might thereby 
learn the errors and frailties that had entailed this reproof from 
the heavenly powers." 

It was predicted even then by leading Chinese astrologers 
that the eclipse of the sun which took place on May 28, 1900, 
would prove ominous to China, and this prediction coming to the 
Emperor's ears caused him to take extraordinary precautions for 
his own and his country's safety. He decreed, first, that the 
courtiers' congratulations to the Emperor should be delivered in a 
hall different from that usually used for this function ; next, that 
instead of the customary gorgeous raiment the court should dress 
for some time in sober, everyday garments, and third, that an altar 
should be erected in an inner palace for the purpose of offering 
u special prayers for the mercy of high heaven toward his chosen 
people," 



88 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

The Empress Dowager regarded the future with more indif- 
ference. The usual observances have been held at her palace dur- 
ing the last two years, and to those who have questioned the 
advisability of such conduct her reply has been that " as these 
observances are paid to one senior to the Emperor, high heaven 
will not be displeased at this display of imperial pomp, since it is 
really an exhibition of the Emperor's filial piety." 

CANCER, RULING SIGN OF CHINA. 

The main reason why all Chinese astrologers predicted that 
the present time would be an ominous epoch in their country's 
history is because the conjunction of the sun and Venus took 
place a few months ago in Cancer, the very sign which for centu- 
ries has been regarded as the ruling sign of China, or the one 
which has most influence over it for good and evil. Venus was in 
that sign for days, and until she left it the Emperor's advisers did 
not feel justified in promising him any measure for good fortune. 

Finally, here is a very singular coincidence : Dr. Waltenrath, 
a well known German astronomer, discovered a few years ago a 
minor satellite of the earth, to which the name Lilith has been 
given. Calculation shows that the period of this satellite is 126 
years ; in other words, it takes her that time to pass through the 
360 degrees of the zodiac. German and English astrologers regard 
those days on which Lilith forms a conjunction with the sun as 
being peculiarly important, and more than one treatise has been 
written to prove that when Lilith occupies a critical position in the 
horoscope of a nation some extraordinary event is bound to take 
place. Now for the first time in 126 years Lilith and the sun 
formed a conjunction on July 6, 1900 — the very day on which the 
massacre of the foreigners was believed to have taken place in 
China — and this conjunction occurred in Cancer, the very sign 
which since Ptolomy's time has been appropriated to China. 

THEY KEPT IT SECRET. 

An incident illustrative of the danger lying in Chinese super- 
stitions is related by Chester Holcombe, for many years secretary 



90 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

of the American legation at Pekin. When General Grant was 
visiting China Mr. Holcombe secured for him a privilege never 
before that time accorded to a foreigner, the privilege of admis- 
sion into the sacred precincts of the Temple of Heaven, in Pekin. 
Now, it is contrary to the settled belief of the Chinese to admit a 
member of the female sex, old or young, even to the temple ground 
under any circumstances. 

It is said that should a Chinese guard venture even to carry a 
baby girl in his arms within the forbidden lines he would probably 
be punished with death. Not knowing of these restrictions, a 
number of ladies in General Grant's party ventured to follow him 
when he visited the sacred edifice. 

Realizing the seriousness of this action, Mr. Holcombe after- 
ward apologized to the Emperor's representative for the conduct of 
his countrywomen, and was informed that the intrusion would be 
overlooked, but must be kept as secret as possible, for should the 
populace learn of it an anti-foreign outbreak would be likely to fol- 
low. They would not forgive such a pollution of their most sacred 
building. 

THE BOOK OF DIVINATION. 

To protect himself in time of trouble or to divine what evil or 
good the future may have for him the Chinaman has his Book of 
Divination. This book consists of sixty-four diagrams composed 
of combinations of unbroken lines with broken lines. The book is 
supposed to be presided over by a legendary god who governs all 
of its dictums. Each of the sixty-four diagrams is designated by 
a name and accompanied by a short explanatory text. These dia- 
grams, properly speaking, are hexagrams, or six sided, and they 
are regarded as an extension of the eight trigrams, called the Pat- 
Kwa, or eight Kwa, formed by combining the same broken and 
unbroken lines three at a time. 

The unbroken lines in the Book of Divination are called 
" yeung," which means " masculine." The broken lines are called 
" yam," which means " feminine." In order to divine or to have 
the book divined, small blocks are thrown three at a time into the 
air. As they come down the position they land in and the manner 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 91 

in which they cross each other indicates some one of the sixty-four 
diagrams of the book. Reference is then made to that number and 
the player is enabled to know what his fortune will be for the next 
thirty days, or why Fate has been unkind to him. This method 
of divination is only practiced between the twelfth and the fifteenth 
of each month. 

The Chinese fortune teller, who is also a priest of legends, 
usually displays as a sign a cotton cloth painted with the Pat-Kwa 
or " eight diagrams." He may have divining powers, in which 
case he will use the divining splints. These splints arranged for 
divination consists of thirty-two or sixty-four pieces of bamboo 
about five inches in length and tipped with red. One-fourth of the 
splints are marked with one dot and called " tan " or " single." 
One-fourth are marked with two dots, called " chit " or u broken." 
Still another fourth is marked with a circle called "ch'ung" or 
" duplicated," and the last fourth are marked with characters called 
" kan " or " united." They are regarded respectfully as yeung, 
"masculine;" yan, " feminine;" shiu-yeung and shiu-yam, yam in 
this case meaning assistant. 

HOW FORTUNES ARE TOLD. 

The person desiring divination draws a splint at random from 
the vase in which the entire bundle is placed and the fortune teller 
notes its mark upon a piece of paper. Another splint is then 
drawn and the result written down just above the former mark, and 
this is repeated until six marks in a line, one above the other, are 
obtained. The combination is then interpreted with the aid of the 
Book of Divination. 

This is somewhat similar to Mikuiji, or the divining sticks of 
Japan. In this sixty bambo splints about nine inches in length 
and marked with numbers from one to sixty are placed in a mykuyi 
bako, or box. They are shaken up until one of them falls out of 
the box and its number is at once referred to the Book of Divina- 
tion where the explanation of or prophecy is found. Either sixty 
or one hundred sticks may be used. The even numbers are con- 
3idered lucky and the odd numbers unlucky, with the exception of 



92 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

number one, which is very lucky and number one hundred which 
is very unlucky. Mikuiji is to be found in both the Shinto and 
Buddhist temples of Japan. 

It is little wonder that depending upon such devices as these the 
Chinaman's mind should be extremely susceptible to the influence 
of legendary tales. He believes so firmly in his legends and that 
they can effect for him so much good that he invariably appeals to 
the God of War through his priests by use of the ts'un-U. In 
English this means " lot-answers." These are one hundred bamboo 
splints about ten inches in length which are placed upon the little 
ledge or altar before the shrine of the God of War. With the 
splints are always two pieces of wood rounded on one side and flat 
on the other and usually made of the root stalk of the bamboo. 

The one who is appealing to the God of War, after making 
the usual sacrifices, throws the last two pieces of wood mentioned 
to ascertain whether the time is propitious for divination with c * lot- 
answers." In throwing the pieces, if both fall with their curved 
side uppermost, the indication is a negative one, neither good or 
evil ; if both fall with the flat side uppermost, the indication is un- 
favorable ; if one falls with the curved side uppermost and the 
other reverse, the indication is good. It is customary to throw the 
blocks until they fall three times alike in succession. 

CONFUCIUS SOUGHT THE TRUTH. 

To much of this vast fabric of superstition and error, Confucius, 
as a writer, as a prophet and as a seer, was opposed. Mancius 
wrote of his time : 

" The world was fallen into decay and right principles had 
dwindled away. Perverse discourses and perverse deeds were again 
waxen rife. Cases were occurring of ministers murdering their 
rulers and of sons murdering their fathers. Wrong thought was 
everywhere. Confucius was afraid and wrote his book the Chun 
Tsew." 

It is said that as soon as the book appeared rebellious minis- 
ters quaked with fear and undutiful sons were overcome with terror. 
Said Confucius himself: 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 98 

u It is righteous decisions I venture to make." 
The endeavor of Confucius was to revive purity. He taught 
that a man was a microcosm, and that by striving to improve him- 
self by acquiring true knowledge, by purifying his thoughts from 
superstitions, by rectifying his heart and by clothing his person, 
he would then be able to regulate his family. If he was able to 
regulate his family, he then might be able to govern a state • 
when he could govern a state, he might be trusted to rule an Em- 
pire. 

But the people of the time of Confucius, while aroused for a 
short period by his teachings, quickly fell back into their old ways 
and it was a number of centuries after his death before that pro- 
found respect was given to his works that is now entertained in all 
parts of the Empire by the people. 

CURIOUS OLD MYTH. 

The myth-lore of China is not so different in many respects 
from that of other early nations of the world. Perhaps in the fol- 
lowing story the foundation of a certain Christian belief may be 
found. This is in the story of the origin of the present Manchu 
dynasty. The native writers tell us that many millions of years 
ago three heaven-born virgins lived beneath the shadow of the 
Great White Mountains in the north of the Empire. They were 
bathing in a lake one day, which reflected in its bosom the snow- 
clad peaks towering above. 

Suddenly a magpie passing overhead dropped a blood-red 
fruit on the clothes of the youngest. This the maiden instinct- 
ively devoured and forthwith conceived and bore a son whose name 
was Ai-sin Ghioro, which being interpreted is the " Golden Family 
Stem," and which is the family name of the present Emperors of 
China. When his mother had entered the icy cave of the dead her 
son embarked in a little boat and floated down the river Hurka 
until he reached a district occupied by three families who were at 
war with each other. The personal appearance of this super- 
natural youth so impressed these warlike chiefs that they ceased 
their battling and claimed him as their ruler. 



94 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

HIS PEOPLE WAXED FAT. 

For his capital was selected the town of O-to-le, and from that 
day his people waxed fat, and at length, as has been so often told in 
the story of the history of China, kicked against the Chinese and 
eventually overthrew them. If this story seems strange, no 
stranger is that of the arrangement of the points of the compass. 
All Western nations have four points of the compass. China has 
five. They are the North, the East, the West, the South and the 
Center. China occupies the Center. As to the creation of man 
himself the Chinese have innumerable legends. One of their 
legends states that the Maker of all things lived in black darkness 
before the world was created. 

At the time of the creation he conceived within himself and 
thought outward into space by which mists and steams were 
created and these gradually took shape and became the sun. The 
sun converted such mists as had not been drawn into it into great 
bodies of water. And into this water the Maker cast the twin 
seeds of Mother-Earth and Heaven. These twin seeds united and 
from their union came human and animal life. As this life 
developed and grew, the Mother-Earth withdrew from Heaven and 
in time was entirely separated. Now the gulf between them is so 
wide a Purgatory is interposed, whose punishments must be under- 
gone before the humans of earth can ever hope to enter that 
Heaven with which they were once united. 

Still further carrying out their love of the supernatural, the 
Chinese have worshiped all streams and lakes as gods, and to every 
mountain is connected a legend. Often their peaks bear the title 
of Khan, meaning king. They have one god (of Hindu origin) 
known as Yaman Dag. He is figured with the head of a dog or 
else of an ox. He wears a coronet of human skulls bound in 
flames, whose twenty hands are grasping human limbs or instru- 
ments of torture ; he is painted a deep blue and his wife a light 
blue. In the Shan-alin range the Manchu poets say is the sacred 
home of their forefathers. 

The Kwan-ning range nearby has always been regarded as 
one of the tutelar deities of the country. Mount Wulin, of this 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 95 

range, has always been included among the nine guardians of the 
Empire. The jade hatchets which were once used in Yunnan are 
called " thunder sticks." The meaning of this is that they are 
bolts hurled to the earth by the God of Thunder. Every effort is 
made under this influence of legends to propitiate spirits of the 
air and water. That is, all nature, from the stars of the firmament 
to the wandering ghosts of the dead. Two principles govern the 
universe — the Yang, or male principle, represented by the sun, and 
the Yin, or female principle, represented by the moon ; the former 
vivifying and propitious, the latter hostile and deadly. 

Yet nothing could exist but for this mingling of the two prin- 
ciples, through whose union everything is born and flourishes, and 
the perfect understanding of which confers immortality. In every 
house is seen the image of a tiger bearing the taiki, on which are 
represented Yang and Yin interpenetrating each other in a magic 
circle and surrounded by lines of various lengths indicating the 
cardinal points and all nature. These lines are the famous dia- 
grams which have served to compose the Yi King, or " Book of 
Transformation," attributed to Fohi, and the sense of which so 
many native and European scholars have vainly endeavored to 

fathom. 

SHADES OF FOREFATHERS HAUNTS. 

The worshipers are guided in all things by the magic arts. 
The shades of their forefathers fill the earth and circumambient 
spaces. These exercise a good or evil influence over the destinies 
of the living. In the individual is recognized three Huen or souls. 
The first is rational, residing in the head, the second is the sensu- 
ous one in the breast and the third is the material one in the 
stomach. The first two of these after death may be fixed, one in 
the memorial tablets and the other in the tomb, but the third 
escapes into space, seeking to enter some other body. Its influence 
may become hostile to the family, if they neglect their religious 
observances. 

The Huen of children are to be feared because they were 
still imperfect at the time of death. The incense sticks are burned 
at the entrance to houses and shops to prevent these and all other 



96 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

malignant spirits from entering. Before beliefs such as these, 
bred into the souls of the people by 4,000 years of education, Chris- 
tianity staggers. It is not strange that its conversions in this 
nation have been so comparatively few in number. 

BEAUTIFUL LEGEND OF THE ROSE. 

One of the beautiful legends of the Empire is that of the Rose. 
There lived before the time of Christ in one of the coast provinces 
a Chinese maiden who loved the Emperor Kaou-te. It was not 
possible for her to declare her love to him, even if slie had wished to. 
She was of humble origin, and although beautiful in face and form, 
not destined by the gods for the favoring glance of an Emperor. 
Nevertheless she worshiped that august personage, and in time 
the story of her love passing slowly from lip to lip reached the 
ears of the Emperor. He commanded her to be brought before 
him, and she came with her aged parents expecting instant death 
for her temerity. 

But the Emperor looked kindly on her beauty and confusion, 
and gave her the opportunity to become one of his concubines, he 
already being provided with the requisite number of legal wives. 
Although frightened at her own courage, the maiden begged the 
Emperor to not give her so lowly a place as that of a concubine, 
but to permit her to go her way and die in peace. She made it 
evident that if she could not be his lawful wife she did not desire 
his love at all. The Emperor did not desire to lose her, and yet 
was so impressed with her modesty that he felt that she must not 
be harmed. 

The story runs that at this interesting j uncture the Gods of 
the Winds intervened in behalf of the maiden. Suddenly there 
blew up the apartment in which the king, his courtiers, the maiden 
and her parents were, a tremendous gale. The Winds blew from 
the north, east, south and west. Great clouds of dust swirled into 
the room and the eyes of all were blinded. When they could not 
see, the maiden disappeared, and where she had stood appeared a 
little mound of earth which the South Wind had carefulty de- 
posited. Freeing their eyes of dust the king and his friends 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 97 

viewed this earth with wonder. Then the East Wind blew and 
moistened the earth with a gentle rain. The West Wind blew 
and the snn shown npon it and from its bosom came an exquisite 
Rose. The North Wind blew ever so gently and tempered the hot 
rays of the snn and the Rose filled the room with its perfume, and 
its beauty was like that of the maiden whom no one was to ever 
see again. 

The legend states that so long as the Emperor Kaou-te lived 
this rose never faded nor grew old, but remained a perpetual 
reminder to him of the purity of affection of his humble subject. 
The day he died the parent stem of the rose broke, the petals of the 
flower faded and withered and passed away forever. The story is 
more than 2,000 years old, but is still told to Chinese maidens by 
their mothers as a veritable truth. 

PUNG, WHO LIVED SO LONG. 

The Chinese tell a story of a man named Pung, who lived 800 
years and married successively seventy-two wives. Number 
seventy-two having died and entered the other world she inquired 
of Pung's grandfather why her husband had survived so many cen- 
turies. " Is it," she asked, " that his name has not been written in 
the register of Yen Vang, the god of death ?" " Not at all," replied 
Pung's grandfather. " I will unravel the mystery for you. Both 
the name and surname of my grandson are really entered in the 
book, but in a peculiar way. When the leaves of the volume were 
put together the binder accidentally took the leaf on which Pung's 
destiny was written, twisted it and used it to fasten the leaves 
together." Pung's wife could not keep the secret, and, the story 
reaching Yen Vang's ears, he examined the register, pulled out the 
piece of paper, and Pung's life was ended at that moment. 

Another example of the legendary influence is the prevalent 
belief as to the character of Hades. A book exists in China which 
is called the " Precious Records." In this Hades is described. 
The Rev. George Clark has prepared a translation of this. 

Hades is conducted like a State Department, and is divided 
into so many Halls of Judgment, each with its president, staff of 



98 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 

officials and specified number of hells. The decrees of every presi- 
dent and the penalties in every hell are so minutely set down that 
there is small possibility of a mistaken address for any soul, 
although it is recorded that one virtuous man was cut off in the 
prime of sanctity and his sonl conducted to a Hall of Judgment by 
the blunder of a demon, who was severely reprimanded. There is 
no red tape in this administration and rewards and punishments 
are allotted with scrupulous care. 

It sometimes happens that the merits of an accused soul 
exactly balance his offences, and he is then allowed another 
chance, and begins life again with excellent opportunities of well 
doing If his account does not stand to his credit, he may be born 
again to deformity or incurable disease. People thus afflicted in 
China are believed to have misconducted themselves in a previous 
life. There are inducements to virtue as well as punishments for 
vice. If a woman should please the gods in one stage of existence 
she may be born a man in the next. iVccording to Chinese philos- 
ophy, the principle of good is male (Yang) and the principle of evil 
is female (Yin). The lady who has the privilege of changing her 
sex in a new life must, therefore, feel highly flattered by the favor 
of the immortals. 

NO DISPUTING OF RECORDS. 

There is no litigation in the Halls of Judgment, for no soul 
dreams of disputing the " Precious Records." The ledgers of 
Hades are kept most punctiliously and as the sacred text remarks 
impressively, " there is no deception." By way, however, of pre- 
venting any cantankerously litigious soul from raising difficulties 
and wasting the president's time, there is a simple but effectual 
ceremony at the door. When received by the " God of Fate " the 
soul is offered a cup of tea, which induces forgetful ness. 

Rev. Clark says that when the missionaries offer tea to Chi- 
nese visitors it is usually declined; the Chinese believe that "we 
put something in the tea which will cause them to involuntarily 
join the church." 

The Halls of Judgment are very severe on suicides, unless the 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 



99 



suicide has been committed for some virtuous reason. A debtor 
sometimes takes his life to spite an importunate creditor, who has 
to defray the funeral expenses and compensate the family of the 
deceased. The Halls of Judgment will decide whether the suicide 
was due to oppression or to a mean spirit of revenge. Unfilial con- 
duct is about the worst offence with which a soul can be laden ; but 
the most dutiful son cannot escape if he has defrauded the govern- 
ment or neglected to pay taxes. Fraud on the government seems 
to be limited to a very small sum " 
and therefore the exact moral position 
of a highly placed mandarin in a Hall 
of Judgment is not clear. 

Quacks are sternly treated, but 
the worst fate of all befalls the scoffers 
— people who openly mock the " Pre- 
cious Records." There is a terrible 
story of what befell certain priests 
who ordered copies of the " Yu-Li " 
to be burned. Liars have a very dis- 
agreeable portion in this world as well 
as others. There is a certain temple 
where an idol devotes itself to the 
function of striking liars dead. A young priest on being asked 
if he had ever seen any liars struck dead replied, " Yes, two." His 
questioner replied : " My young friend, take care that you are not 
the third." 

VIRTUES OF VEGETARIANISM. 

To escape the various hells which are like the circles of 
Dante's Inferno, without the poetry, it seems to be a good plan to 
turn vegetarian. "It is believed that animals, birds, fishes and 
insects are possessed by some one's spirit ; if their death is pre- 
vented the spirit obtains some mitigation of the pains of hell ; 
therefore, much merit is obtained by setting at liberty living crea- 
tures." The greatest merit of all is not to eat a flesh diet. Mr. 
Pao killed Wan San, whose soul thirsted for revenge. Wan San 
met Pao, who was willing to submit to the forfeiture of his life, but 
LofC. 




HIGH-CASTE MANDARIN. 



w 



100 THE INFLUENCE OF LEGENDS. 



because he was a vegetarian " Wan San had pity on him, and only 
cut off his pigtail." 

In a country " where," as was written by Wingrove Cook, il the 
roses have no fragrance, and the women no petticoats ; where the 
laborer has no Sabbath and the magistrate no sense of honor; 
where the needle points to the south and the sign of being puzzled 
is to scratch the antipodes of the head ; where the place of honor is 
on the left-hand and the seat of intellect is in the stomach ; where 
to take off your hat is an insolent gesture and to wear white is to 
put yourself into mourning " it is perhaps hardly reasonable to 
expect other beliefs or opinions than those cited. China can say 
without dispute that, overlooking the influence of India, she had 
truly made herself what she is. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Popular Belief in Dreams. 

Common People Influenced by Visions— Dreams Affect Their Daily Life — Often In- 
spired to Massacre by Alleged Supernatural Influences— Love for Signs and 
Tokens — Superstitions of the Masses — Gamblers with Fate — How Self-reliance is 
Destroyed — The Popular Mind Enslaved — Many Seekers for the Truth. 

IT is extraordinary how the simplest kind of a dream, caused by 
either a slight attack of indigestion or an uncomfortable spot 

in the bed, will change the entire course of a Chinaman's life. 
He may be comfortably located in a certain province, have his 
patch of garden ground, have a few coins laid by for a rainy day, 
and be surrounded by all his friends and relatives. On some par- 
ticular night he dreams that he saw a blood red spot in the sky 
and that when he gazed upon it, it fell with a great splash into 
the sea, the waters of which were dashed upon the shore and worked 
great ruin to contiguous cities. 

Instantly that he is awake, John Chinaman hastens to the 
official interpreter of dreams and ascertains on the payment of a 
small fee, that this dream portends a speedy death of himself, un- 
less he immediately removes to another province. The dream 
interpreter knows no more the truth of what he says than the 
dreamer, but he is an accepted authority and John Chinaman 
hastens to remove his household goods and gods and locate him- 
self in another part of the Empire. It is related of one of the 
Emperors that he dreamed one night that a great black dog was 
standing on his breast. 

He awoke in great alarm and sent for his soothsayers. They 
were stunned. In all their lore and law of dreams there was not 
an explanation for the presence of a large black dog. Such an 
animal was unknown to them. They were in despair. The Em- 
peror demanded instant interpretation or their heads. Finally one 
of their number, who was a quicker wit than the others, prostrated 
himself before the Emperor and said : 

101 



102 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 



BLACK DOGS EAGER TO DEVOUR, 

" This is the meaning of your dream. There is in all the 
Empire no such hideous thing as a black dog. But in the outer 
world where dwell devils and strange things, there are black dogs 




BEHEADING A CHINESE CRIMINAL. 

going about eager to devour whom they find. Now, therefore, is 
it true that this dream portends that your Empire is threatened 
from without by a black devil of a dog and that your majesty must 
at once call to your aid all your great men to slay the beast and 
thus prevent its entrance into your kingdom. Perchance, when it 
learns of your having been forewarned, it may not come at all." 

The Emperor was so pleased at the interpretation that he be- 
stowed great honors upon the one who had spoken and promptly 
beheaded the others who had been so slow in meeting the einerg- 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 103 

ency. Then, as history records, he collected an army of thousands 
of men and waited for the coining of the " black dog." But it 
came not. As the soothsayer had wisely foreseen, it must have 
learned of the Emperor's preparations for its reception and stayed 
away altogether. 

The Chinaman is so easily influenced by what we term super- 
stitions that for all his motives or impulses he finds an alleged 
supernatural explanation. For instance, it is now clearly estab- 
lished that one of the causes for the Boxer uprising was the belief 
among the common people that all the agencies of steam employed 
by the white man in commerce were in reality the product of devils. 
All the gods of the Wind, of the Rain, of the Sunshine of the 
Chinaman advised him by day and by night that he could only 
overcome these devils by destroying the white men who made use 
of them. 

PLOTS AGAINST CHRISTIANS AND FOREIGNERS, 

Many of the ancient leaders of the Boxers knew that this was 
not true, but for political and other reasons they played upon the 
fears of the superstitious and secured their co-operation in the 
attack upon the foreign legations and in the massacre of white and 
native Christians. During the opium war of 1840, many isolated 
attacks of Chinamen upon white people in different parts of the 
Empire took place. Chinamen who were afterwards questioned as 
to the reasons for these apparently unprovoked attacks, explained 
that such and such a god or such and such a group of gods had 
visited them in the night when they slept and had ordered them to 
make way with all white people — that the white people represented 
the evil spirits hostile to the peace of all Chinamen, and worked 
with them. 

It is related that the nine vases, upon which the Emperor Yu 
had engraved the maps of the nine provinces of the Empire, trem- 
bled at one time upon their bases. Immediately the soothsayers 
and the wise men of the Empire predicted the coming overthrow of 
the dynasty. It so happened that this did speedily follow. It 
would be impossible to convince any Chinaman of ordinary intelli- 



104 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 



gence that the trembling vases were not a sign, a token from 

the gods of the destruc- 
tion that was to fol- 
low. Once let a China- 
man have a dream of 
an evil thing, or of that 
to which an evil thought 
may be attached and it 
is but a short time be- 
fore he and his rela- 
tives, as well as his im- 
mediate circle of friends 
have applied the mean- 
ing of the dream to 
things in life, and made 
it a part of the national 
thought. Commonly 
speaking, the Chinaman 
is not supposed to be 
imaginative by his 
Western brethren. In 
truth, in the matter of 
evil spirits, evil signs 

CHINESE BABY IN ITS WINTER CRADLE. „„ -j . -i _ i ™™ „ 

and tokens, ne gives a 
rein to his imagination that passes beyond anything heard of 
in other civilizations. 




CHILDREN OFTEN KIDNAPPED. 

The kidnapping of children is something that happens with 
great frequency in many of the Chinese cities. At all hours there 
are people beating gongs and crying " Lost Child." The walls are 
covered with notices of rewards for recovery. Both boys and girls 
are taken. The kidnappers are called " moh-hu-tsz." This means 
" touch them quick." It is said the moh-hu-tsz have the power to 
merely look at or touch a child who falls down powerless. Recently 
in Hankow a Chinese resident dreamed that the kidnappers of 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 105 

p 

children were the foreigners. He dreamed that he saw innumer- 
able Chinese children being carried away by the soldiers and ser- 
vants of the foreign merchants. He related his dream. It did not 
make a great impression npon the minds of his associates. But 
some one carried the story to Wuchang, where the railroad was 
being built with foreign money and by foreign engineers. 

The dream was hardly well circulated there when the story 
passed among the native residents that in order to make the bridges 
of the Pekin-Hankow railway secure it was necessary to bury the 
bodies of native children under the foundations. The moh-hu-tsz 
was accused of being in league with the foreigners to furnish the 
children for the seven foundations. The result was that three men 
who were suspected of kidnapping were killed without process of 
law in Wuchang. One was drowned, the second was stoned and 
the third was hacked to pieces. The dream story returned to Han- 
kow after accomplishing its terrible work at Wuchang and several 
suspected kidnappers were lynched there. In Michaig one of the 
suspects was tied up in a bundle of pith of lamp wicks over which 
a can of kerosene was poured, and he then burned to a cinder. 

IGNORANCE AND CREDULITY. 

A party of Belgium engineers were at Paoiting-fu when the 
Boxer uprising came. There were thirty in the party which in- 
cluded six women and one child. The Boxer leaders told the mobs 
they had incited to riot that they had seen signs in the heavens 
and strange lights at night which warned them that these foreigners 
must be put to death. Meanwhile the engineers had started for 
Tien-Tsin where they knew the protection of the allied forces would 
be given them. They were followed by the Boxers who finally 
captured four of them, of whom it is certain now that one man was 
shot and beheaded and his sister with him killed and mutilated. 
The remaining twenty-six continued their journey to Tien-Tsin, 
fighting all the way. They used in their defense some 2,000 
cartridges. They finally reached the haven of safety in bad con- 
dition, many of the men and some of the women wounded. 

In a keen and thoughtful analysis of the present troubles i'j 



1(J6 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

China Mr. Ho Yow, the Chinese consul-general at San Francisco, 
himself a broad-minded and highly cultured gentleman, has traced 
the difficulties to three sources : the deep-rooted national aversion 
to the spread of a new religion, the resentment felt at the appro- 
priation of Chinese territory by foreign powers, and, lastly and 
greatest of all, the ignorance and superstition which prevails 
among the masses, including many of the official and Mandarin 
class, leading them to implicit belief in the false and slanderous 
stories circulated concerning the horrid practices of Christians and 
their evil designs upon the country. These views of the situation 
are corroborated by the best writers on China, including such as 
Chester Holcombe and Dr. Arthur H. Smith, whose work on " Vil- 
lage Life in China " is a revelation of the character of the people 
in the rural sections of the country. 

GREAT STICKLERS FOR ETIQUETTE. 

The point is emphasized by Dr. Smith, as well as others, that 
one of the greatest difficulties and the greatest source of peril in 
dealing with the common people in China lies in the fact that they 
are such sticklers for etiquette and ceremonial observance, and 
have so many superstitious notions about the details of every-day 
life, which, if disregarded or violated by foreigners, are certain to 
stir up resentment and lead in many cases to outbreaks of mob 
violence. It is hard, indeed, for a foreigner to tell when, in carry- 
ing out what is to him a common-place detail of business or social 
life, he may not be stepping on some sensitive Chinese preju- 
dice or belief and storing up for himself a whirlwind of popular 
wrath. 

Even a Chinese scholar, supposed to be far above the average 
of his fellows in learning, may be found beating a drum to save 
the sun in an eclipse from being devoured by the " Dog," and he 
receives with implicit faith the announcement that in Western 
lands the years are a thousand days in length with four moons all 
the time. Faith in the feng shui, or geomancy of a district, is still 
as fiimly rooted as ever in the minds of many of the leading literary 
men of the Empire, as is shown by memorials in the Pekin Gazette, 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 



107 



calling for changes in buildings, the erection of lucky towers, etc., 
because the number of successful competitions is not greater. 

THOUGHT TO BE AN EVIL INVENTION. 

A few years ago an American resident in Canton had a weather 
cock of the conventional arrow form placed on the top of his house. 
His Chinese neighbors took this weather-vane to be a thing of evil 
placed there to encourage the " devil " spirit, and they made such 
an ado about it that the offending house owner was compelled to 
take it down. A similar remonstrance was made in another Chinese 
city against the 
erection of a 
water-spout on a 
house, on the 
ground that it 
drew off all the 
rain in the dis- 
trict. 

The China- 
men think for- 
eigners have in- 
terfered with 
their " feng- Chinese students. 

shue," or, as one would say, the electrical conditions of their 
country. This is another phase of strange superstition. 

The term feng-shue is an allegorical representation of an in- 
visible and intangible but all-pervading force, which is as real to 
the mind of the Chinaman as is the air he breathes or the water he 
drinks. For two doors, or two windows, or a door and a window to 
be directly opposite, thereby causing a draught, is very unpropi- 
tious to the feng-shue. Therefore this arrangement of doors and 
windows seldom occurs in a Chinese house. When of a necessity 
it does occur, the Chinaman makes peace with his feng-shue by 
putting up a screen. This was doubtless the origin of the screen. 
It is thus used, not for the sake of privacy, but to keep out evil 
influences and to be in harmony with the feng-shue. 




108 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

SPIRE OF A CATHEDRAL TOO TALL. 

At any rate it seems to be a perilous thing indeed to disturb a 
Chinaman's feng-shue. Some years ago the French Jesuit mis- 
sionaries erected a fine cathedral near Canton. Soon afterward a 
mob threatened to pull it down. It was not because the common 
people were intolerant of the Roman Catholic religion, but because 
the spire of the new cathedral was very tall and they feared the dis- 
turbance of the feng-shue. This feng-shue, like electricity, is sup_ 
posed to be attracted by high points such as pagodas, tall buildings 
and the crests of high ridges. 

This superstition is as much a part of China as the people 
themselves. One is forcibly impressed with this in traveling 
through the interior provinces where one sees a great many pago- 
das and tall towers. These pagodas are always situated in threes, 
that is, one is never seen without two others near by and the three 
are so placed as to form an equilateral triangle. The purpose of 
this is to bring good luck ; to be propitious to the feng-shue. 

The fortune teller who takes part in every function of life in 
China, is an ofHcial of tremendous importance in determining about 
dreams and the thousand and one signs discerned by the credulous. 
He literally determines everything and there is little gainsaying in 
his word unless by chance his prophecies should prove erroneous 
for a considerable period of time. In that event a mob sets upon 
him and beats him to death and immediately engages a new fortune 
teller who lives longer than his predecessor if he be fortunate 
enough to prophesy good things that come true. 

It was the fortune teller who first determined that the seat of 
honor for a guest at any one's table should be on the left. This is 
contrary to the Western custom of placing the guest upon the 
right. The two opposing customs, though, in principle are proba- 
bly one. Both appear to be survivals of the ancient and almost 
universal worship of the sun. In China the needle of the Chinese 
compass points toward the south and every house in China of any 
size faces the same way as well as the seats of honor in all reception 
rooms. The place on the left of the host is therefore that nearest 




A CHINESE PAGODA. 



110 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

to the east where the life-giving sun rises and hence its title to the 
honor. 

The fortune teller discerned this several thousand years ago 
and having so dictated to the people the custom has remained to 
this day. It is a natural result of the influence of soothsayers and 
fortune tellers, of the belief in dreams and the fear of signs and 
tokens, that the people should become fatalists. All natural emo- 
tions are suppressed as far as possible. What is, must be. Every- 
thing is willed. Just how it is willed the Chinaman cannot discern 
save through chance, and, therefore, he throws out the dice or con- 
sults the oracles and upon their decisions bases his actions. 

SHUT OUT FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD. 

In another sense he wagers himself against life. It is difficult 
for the Western mind to comprehend the philosophy to which he 
clings. Ching Wu said in explanation of this philosophy : 

" My people from the beginning of all time, until within the 
last few years, have been practically left to themselves. Contact 
with the so-called Western world has been more or less impossible. 
Before the invention of the steam engine and the use of steam, 
China could only be reached either by long and laborious journeys 
over deserts and extensive mountain ranges, or by tedious and unsafe 
voyages on the ocean ; the Suez canal was not constructed, the 
steam railway was unknown. My ancestors, with the exception of 
such intercourse as they had with India, and the islands of the 
eastern Atlantic, met no one but their own people or the savage 
tribes which bordered the Empire. From these savage tribes noth- 
ing was to be learned. 

" My ancestors looked at the stars, the clouds, the earth and 
the sea. They saw the lightning and heard the thunder. They 
felt the force of the waves. The great rivers rose and covered the 
land and thousands of people were destroyed. Natural phenomona, 
such as I now understand, was constantly occurring. First it puz- 
zled and bewildered the people. Then, as intelligence advanced, 
the necessity for a social and a religious order became apparent. 
This necessity- once confronted the Western world, but the Western 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. Ill 

world had China, India and other older nations to draw upon for 
experiences. China had no such resource. What preceded her it 
is impossible to say. 

" Some of our great people believe that the first Chinamen 
came from Egypt and that they had much knowledge. I do not 
know. If they did, nevertheless, those who built up what is the 
China of to-day, had to do it out of their own minds. It is not 
strange that in doing this, they erected many habits and customs 
which seem out of the way to the foreigners. What they did was 
for the best. Millions have been happy under their laws, millions 
have been good. If it is right that we should change now, the 
change will come whether the foreigner interferes or not. If it is 
not right that we should change, all the foreigners cannot bring it 
about. Everything is in the hands of Fate, and until what Fate 
decrees is made plain, we shall not know what to do." 

INDEPENDENCE OF PEOPLE DESTROYED. 

Self-reliance, as Western people understand the term, does not 
exist in China. So much superstition is prevalent, so much dream 
life is indulged in, that independence is more or less destroyed. 
The people are timorous. They face the battle for existence with 
rare stoicism, but when it comes to being creative, to strike out, to 
broadening their field for action and thought, they hesitate and 
draw back. This might be expanded upon, but illustrations are per- 
ferable. Reference is again made to still other systems of divina- 
tion than those referred to. 

One of these is found in the game of Fan Tan, known only to 
America as a gambling game, but having a deeper significance in 
China. The meaning of the title of the game is " rapidly spread- 
ing out." Fan Tan is played with a quantity of Chinese brass 
" cash." These in reality take the place of divining splints de- 
scribed in another chapter. The dealer covers a handful of this 
cash with a brass cup. The number under the cup is unknown. 
The players lay their wagers on the four sides of the square num- 
bered from one to four. The dealer then raises the cup and divides 
the cash by fours, using for the purpose a tapering rod of teak 



112 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

wood about eighteen inches in length. When all the fours are 
counted off, the winner is determined by the number remaining. 

In divining or determining fortune the Chinese player (at 
home) finds his lucky number in the number of " cash " remaining 
under the cup after the counting by fours. Whatever this number 
is he takes it to the divining book and finds its corresponding 
number there, and with it the explanation of what his fortune is to 
be. While the Chinese lots or divining rods, or " cash " at the 
present age are inscribed simply with the number referring to the 
corresponding pages of a book in which is to be found both the 
oracle and its explanation, it is not unlikely that the oracle was 
originally engraved or written upon the lot itself. 

Playing cards are used in China, not merely for gambling pur- 
poses, but also for the telling of fortunes and the interpretation of 
dreams. One title for these playing cards is tseung-kwan-p'ai. 
This set consists of one hundred and twenty cards. Cards are not 
played with that persistency in China that they are in many other 
countries. As fortune tellers they are principally used among 
people of the higher classes. 

BULLETS COULD NOT KILL. 

How far superstition may aid fanaticism is shown in the state- 
ments spread far and wide by the Boxers that all who join their 
ranks would be impervious to the bullets of foreigners. This made 
many converts to their cause. This among a people who hold that 
a rocky gorge cleft in the hills has been the work of a god, who 
find that the fossils of the rocks are sacred objects and hold that 
the entrance to Heaven is through the earth. This, of the people, 
too, one portion of whom take ammonites (fossil shells) to the 
highest peaks of the mountain ranges and to conjure the evil 
spirits near these fossils, place as offerings the bones and skulls of 
the great wild sheep or ovis ammon. 

Another portion of the people after the death of a relative are 
compelled to wait for the decision of the priests as to whether the 
body shall be buried, burned, cast to the running waters or ex- 
posed to the beasts of prey. If it is to be exposed to the beasts of 



114 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

prey the bones are first broken and the body cnt in pieces. This 
is done in order to hasten the return to the first elements. If any- 
thing is left by the animals it is collected and thrown into a stream. 
The finger joints are often preserved and strung in chaplets while 
the bones of the arms and legs are converted into trumpets for 
summoning the priests to prayer. This practice is common in 
Tibet. 

Thus, too, among these people where everything seems to be 
at variance with Western practice and custom, polyandria is prac- 
ticed. The advantage of this is that it prevents dividing the family 
inheritance and permits all to reside under one roof A group of sons 
of a family decide to marry. The eldest son calls upon the bride's 
parents. He speaks not alone for himself but for his brothers. If the 
bride's parents find him to be acceptable a piece of butter is placed on 
his forehead and that of the bride. She then becomes the wife of all 
the brothers, although, if children are afterwards born, the eldest 
is called father and the others uncle. "Travelers tell us that mat- 
rimonial squabbles are unknown in these polyandrious families in 
which the men vie with each other in their eagerness to procure 
the coral, amber and other ornaments affected by the common wife." 

VAST DESERT WASTES. 

Pass into the Turkestan country and come to the foot of the 
Kuen-Lun range. Here are immense stony wastes. Of these the 
Chinese speak with, trembling. They say they are " rivers of 
sand," the wilderness, by them, is peopled with winged dragons 
and genii. " The voice of the sand mocks the wayfarer or follows 
him with vague force, now singing, now moaning or muttering 
like distant thunder, or drawing shrill hissing sounds as if the air 
were alive with hissing demons. 

" Much of this may be due to the fevered fancy of travelers," 
much of it is due to the dreams which Haunt those who pass 
into these wastes and are compelled to cross them. The stories 
they bring back of things unseen but felt are passed from lip to lip, 
from village to village until magnified a thousand times they be- 
come part of the national records and in a Chinese sense, part of 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 115 

the, national history. Thus, this story — the people of the city 
called Ho-lao-lo-kia received a message from Heaven. Being in a 
hardened state of mind, they rejected this message. The gods did 
not spare them. They were condemned to perish under a rain of 
sand. The storm came covering their gardens and palaces. They 
ran from place to place shrieking, but there was no escape. 

Another tradition tells of over three hundred cities that re- 
jected the words of the gods and immediately the sands of Takla- 
makan were gathered up by the winds and hurled upon them until 
they were obliterated. The Chinese old women say now that cer- 
tain shepherds still know the sites of these cities, but that they 
have kept the secret to themselves in order that they may add to 
to their wealth the riches which they have found buried in the ruins. 

STRUCK DEAD BY INVISIBLE HANDS. 

At Kok-nor, not far from Lake Lob, there is a temple with an 
image which the natives come to worship. They return to their 
homes saying that the statue within the temple and the temple 
itself are covered with rich stones and bars of gold and silver. If 
one touches these he is struck dead by an invisible hand. 

At Tarintzi the dead are placed in a skiff with another reversed 
above it to form a coffin. Half a net is given the dead one with 
which to fish in the other world. Then the body is set afloat on 
the waters. In the Tarim region for centuries Chinese travelers 
have searched for the marvelous A White Water." This water is 
said to possess the quality of cleansing all the sins of those who 
bathe in it. Earthly happiness is secured to them forever. The 
waters have not been found, but the story is a strong parallel to 
Ponce de Leon's search for the Fountain of Perpetual Youth. 

In Oduntala is a god of the Mongols. Here seven spotless 
animals — a yak, a horse, and five sheep — are consecrated to the 
priests annually. About their necks is tied a red ribbon and they 
are driven to the mountains charged with the sins of the people. 
Here the Tangut lives, a robber in many ways, extremely religious 
in others. He atones for his sins by visiting the shores of the 
Blue Lake. There he purchases fish still living and restores them 



116 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

to their native element. Thus his sins are removed. The dead of 
the Tangut are thrown to the beasts and birds of prey. 

All these habits, customs, idiosyncrasies, and superstitions are 
gathered under the flag of one Empire, an Empire which until the 
present time has steadily grown with comparatively few setbacks 
for all of 4,000 years. Here is the Mongol sufficiently strong to 
remain for fifteen hours in the saddle, but who will not walk a 
hundred yards from his tent for he is unaccustomed to walking and 
ashamed to be seen on foot. Here, are the people who gather once 
a year for a great feast, when the princes, their leaders, appear be- 
fore them to be questioned, reproved and " even deposed for the 
wrongs committed by them in the exercise of their powers." Here, 
are those who are condemned to attend the foxes cf the Khans who 
claim the power of life and death over them. 

CURIOUS SUPERSTITIONS. 

Here is a race whose first question is as to the condition of 
their live stock, something which is of more importance to them 
than their family. Here is a people who never drink cold w r ater 
because they attribute it to a malignant influence. Neither will 
they eat birds or fish supposing them to be unclean. Wizards 
thrive everywhere. They it is who are appealed to when the flocks 
are attacked by disease, when the rain does not come, when the sick 
are to be healed or when it is necessary (as it often is) for the 
healthy to be stricken by disease. The people engaged at different 
periods in the building of the Great Wall suffered much. 

Near one of the breaches stands a temple. This temple com- 
memorates a legend, which illustrates the sufferings of those 
engaged by the Emperor Tsin on the construction of the ramparts. 
A woman found the body of her husband by the wall. He had 
perished from his sufferings while engaged at the work. She 
dashed her head against the wall which immediately fell and she 
was buried by the side of her husband. The inscription on the 
temple reads : 

" This woman is venerated, but the Emperor Tsin is forever 
execrated." 




COLLECTING THE ANNUAL TRIBUTE FROM THE MONGOLIAN TRIBES 
IN MANCHURIA: THE CHIEF SOURCE OF LI-HUNG CHANG'S REVENUE 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 117 

THE FIVE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 

In Shantung is Ta-shan, or Great Mountain. It is the most 
sacred of the five holy mountains of the Empire and entitled the 
" beneficent king," " the equal of heaven," " the controller of births 
and deaths," " the arbiter of human destinies." Confucius at- 
tempted to reach the summit of this peak, a distance of 5,100 feet, 
but failed. A temple marks the spot where he stopped. Beyond, 
passing through the provinces, a tribe is met with that removes the 
dead from the coffin every two or three years and carefully washes 
the body. The tribe holds that the public health depends on the 
clean condition of the bones. 

Still other tribes are found where deceased friends are not 
mourned for at the time of death but with the return of spring 
when all nature is renewed. If the dead do not return, then it is 
evident that they have forgotten their people forever. The strange 
custom of the " couvade v yet prevails with some of the tribes. 
After a child is born and as soon as the mother is strong enough 
to leave her couch, the husband takes her place and receives the 
congratulations of their friends. 

Yet, with all this influence of dream life and sign life and the 
waiting upon tokens and the voice of the gods, there is much to be 
said not only for the Chinaman who has not gone forward according 
to Western standards, but for the Chinaman who sees a new light 
and who is willing, nay anxious, to bring his nation into accord 
with the Western world. No patriotic Chinaman desires the parti- 
tion of the Empire. To attempt it will probably lead to the most 
gigantic war known to history. But the best thought of the 
Empire freed from many of the bad influences of the court in 
Pekin, is for a radical change. Colquhoun writes : 

" China is in the condition of an invalid whose life can only be 
saved by transfusion of healthy blood. The system is to be cau- 
tiously and carefully revived, not by violence, but by tact and 
patience. China wants her communications opened up, her indus- 
tries organized, her mineral wealth brought to the surface, her nat- 
ural products utilized. China is a world necessity and civilization 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 119 

cannot afford that she should become a mere carcass around which 
the vultures of the world shall gather." 

George B. Smyth, president of the Anglo-China college at Foo 
Chou writes : 

" The civilization of China is the development of its own 
national genius and life. Of no nation in the West can this be 
affirmed. The peoples of America and Europe have been so closely 
related on terms of equality that the civilization of no one of them 
can be said to be entirely its own. They have so acted and reacted 
one upon another by physical force and moral and intellectual 
influences that the civilized life of each is the development, not of 
its own national genius merely, but that, modified in many and 
various directions by the civilization of each of the others. 

STRIKING NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 

" Vastly different have been the conditions under which the 
civilization of China has grown. With the exception of India, to 
which she owes Buddhism, I do not know to what other country 
she is indebted for anything. She has been surrounded by peoples 
who in all the great qualities of life were vastly inferior to her. 
She developed a splendid literature, an elaborate system of social 
customs, a noble system of ethics, and they are all her own. 

" Her own too, were some of the great inventions of man — 
gunpowder, printing and the mariner's compass. Beginning at a 
time which antedates the birth of every other nation now living she 
has developed, with the exception already noted, her own national 
life, learning nothing from her neighbors and teaching them all, 
the quick intelligent Japanese, no less than the slow, phlegmatic 
Corean. Such a history naturally taught her to look upon herself 
as the first of nations ; she was acknowledged as such by all the 
nations around her. The inevitable result followed ; she looked 
upon all other countries as her inferiors." 

James Harrison Wilson contributes his opinion : 

" It cannot be too frequently repeated that the peculiarities of 
civilization and government and the extraordinary conservatism of 
the Chinese are mainly due to that isolation which has remained 



120 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 

unbroken from the beginning of time to within half a century, but 
fortunately may now be regarded as quite at an end forever. If 
human experience is of any value, or is in application to this case, 
nothing can be more certain than that the Chinese must ultimately 
modify as all other nations have modified. They have similar 
wants, similar affections and similar interests and must gratify them 
by means similar to those employed by other peoples. And so it 
may be safely assumed that when they do seriously set about the 
task of bettering their condition and improving their civilization 
and government they will proceed much as other people have pro- 
ceeded. Their efforts will be followed by success and failures in 
the usual proportions." 

THE EMPIRE SEEKING INFORMATION. 

China is just now in a position of asking questions — of being 
a huge interrogation point. Well and good will it be if the 
answers given by the Western world are true, and such as will lead 
her out of the old ways into the new without conflict. Her mind 
is hidden behind a veil which has been drawn tightly for thousands 
of years. She is not going to open it at once, nor altogether will- 
ingly. Her position just at present perhaps could not be better 
illustrated than by a story of the Chinese minister to the United 
States. Minister Wu w r as called upon by a well known writer and 
one or two questions put to him which he did not answer. Sud- 
denly he turned on her with the question : 

" Why do you write ? " 

" For money," promptly asserted the writer. 

" But you have a husband, haven't you ? " 

" Yes." 

" He lets you write. Why ? " 

Here followed a long and detailed account of how and why his 
caller began to write and the reasons why she continued to write, 
in which he was absorbingly interested. 

" How many children have you ?" continued Mr. Wu, the story 
finished. 

" Five," was the terse response. 



POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. 121 

"Are they good?" 
" Yes," laconically. 
" Have you a mother ? " 

" Yes," again. 

" How old is your mother ? " 

" Sixty-three." 

" How old is your father?" 

" Seventy-eight." 

" How old are you ? " 

" Thirty-five." 

" Is your father rich ? " 

"No." 

" How many sisters have you ? " 

"Three." 

"Do they write too?" 

"No." 

" Why not ? Are they not as clever as you are, or don't they 
like to work ? " 

The writer then explained at length why her sisters did not 
work and for an hour continued to answer questions of like charac- 
ter which poured forth from the mouth of her host. 

All the cunning, all the strength of intellect, all the wisdom in 
this attrition between the Western and the Eastern world is not 
lodged on the side of the former. Ludicrous as the dream life of 
China may seem to the Westerner, it is neither to be despised nor 
condemned. Far better to accept it as it is and let Western exam- 
ple and Western honor and Western sense of humanity show the 
better way by example, and not by force of arms. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Early Dawn of Chinese History. 

First Authentic Records 2,000 Years Before Christ— The Writings of Confucius— Yao and 
His Rule— First Contact with India— Theories as to the Origin of the Race— Early 
Herders of Sheep— The Sixth Century Epoch— Attacks by Foreign Tribes— Assaults 
by the Tartar Races. 

WITH the advent of the plow the life of the Chinese agricul- 
turist and the commencement of the reign of Yao (2356 
B. c.) Chinese history takes some definite and tangible 
form. Confucius dated his writings from the time of Yao. Yao 
was so powerful and good a monarch " that virtue pervaded the 
land, crime was unknown and the nation increased in size and 
prosperity. " The capital was then at the city of Kee-Choo in the 
present province of Shantung. After Yao came many monarchs of 
less ability and less virtue until the reign of Kee (1818 B. a). He 
was licentious, cruel, faithless and dissolute. The people rose 
against him and swept away all traces of him and his bloody house. 

The Shang dynasty succeeded that of Kee, and the first of 
this line was Tang (1766 B. a). Like Yao he was wise and brought 
prosperity to the nation, but his successors were debased, and the 
people in time found it neccessary to treat them as had been done 
with Kee. They were exterminated, and the Chow dynasty placed 
in power. Woo-Wang as the first monarch of this line divided the 
Empire into seventy-two feudal states (did the Norman borrow that 
id~q. from China?), and thereby worked his own ruin. The feudal 
states fought each other and then the dynasty. To add to the 
troubles of the nation the Tartars appeared on the western borders 
and made numerous invasions. 

Confucius was born at this time— a period when the nation 

was distracted by internal wars and harassed by the attacks of a 

foreign foe. Confucius devoted his life to the promulgation of 

virtue and the right principles of government, but little or no heed 

was paid to him at the time and he died (475 b. c.) a neglected 
122 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 123 

and disappointed man. Lao-Tze appeared at about the same time 
as Confncins. He brought to the Chinese the first principles of 
the Hindu religion, but it was three centuries after his death 
before Buddhism found favor with the Chinese people. 

But, as Reclus notes, " after all the Fo-Kiao, or worship of 
Buddha, changed little in the social life of China. The ceremonial 
modified, but the substance remained much the same. Whatever 
be the sacred emblems, the religion that has survived is still that 
which is associated with the rites in honor of ancestry, with the 
conjuring of evil spirits and especially with the strict observance of 
the old traditional formulas.' 5 

A TIME OF MYSTERY. 

Prior to the records of authentic history, the Chinaman in 
order to account for his appearance on earth and even the creation 
of the earth itself, invented a system of fables and legends cover- 
ing a period of more than two million years before the reign of 
Yao. While Confucius in his writings showed more or less respect 
for these legends and fables, he at the same time attacked many of 
them and disputed their truthfulness. The first pages of reliable 
Chinese history describe the beginning of the nation as a little 
horde of wanderers, roving among the forests of Shan-se without 
houses, without clothing, without fire to dress their victuals. They 
lived on the spoils of the chase and were unquestionably from 
other lands. 

That they came from the west or southwest of the present 
Empire appears to be certain, and as they moved toward the Pacific 
they reached the northern waters of the Yellow river, and they 
followed this southward until they came to the rich plains of what 
is now called the province of Shan-se. As has been noted, after 
settling in this province they followed the care of sheep and for 
many generations were herdsmen. The soil of China, though, 
was too rich not to attract their attention. 

From the care of sheep they passed to the cultivation of the 
soil, and in a few years understood the value of flax for garments, 
had mastered the secret of the silk worm and planted the mulberry 



124 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

tree. For their own gain they established commercial fairs, which 
they held annually at certain centers. They must have paid some 
attention to the stars, for they had an early knowledge of astro- 
nomy. They were also familiar with hieroglyphic writing and 
made use of it in their petitions to the rulers. 

In spreading out over what was to become the Chinese Em- 
pire, the new people found wild tribes in possession of the land. 
For instance, their history states that they found on the north 
" fiery dogs,'' and on the east " great bow men," and on the south 
" the ungovernable vermin," and in the west *' mounted warriors." 
The Chinese invaders conquered these with the exception of a 
small minority who still reside in the mountainous regions of 
Kwei-chow and Kwang-se. This minority is known as the Meaou- 
tsze, and they are still foes of China. . 

EMPERORS OF POWERFUL VIRTUES. 

The character of the first two Chinese Emperors of authentic 
history, Yao and his successor Shun, have been touched upon by 
nearly every writer of history from the time of Confucius down. 
They have been described as men of powerful virtues and so strong 
in influence for the good that crime was unknown and the nation 
increased in size and prosperity. The capital of the Empire was 
then at the ancient city of Ke-choo in Shantung. It was during 
this time that the famous engineer Yu was employed to drain off 
the waters of the flood which had visited the north of China. 
Nine years were required by him to complete the work, and in re- 
ward for this he was made Emperor after the death of Shun. 
Then came a number of small rulers, each weaker than the pre- 
ceding one, until Kee in the year 1818 b. c. was made Emperor. 
These impotent Emperors, in China, as they have in the history 
of every empire of the world, laid the foundation for national ills 
felt to this day ; ills which but bred woe for the common people 
China owes much sorrow to her dynasties. 

Yet if the primitive Chinaman could not discover actual virtues 
in his Emperors he fondly created attributes for them which were 
to make them famous in Oriental history. Thus Yew Chau She, 




CHINESE WINNOWING TEA, SOMEWHAT LIKE OUR OLD METHOD OF 

FANNING WHEAT 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 125 

whose name meant " Nest having," was the first of the Emperors 
to give wise counsel to the people and to lead their armies. He it 
was who induced them to settle on the Yellow River and who 
taught them to make huts of the boughs of trees. Suy-jinshe (the 
fire producer), discovered the use of fire for them by accidently 
rubbing together two pieces of dry wood. He it was who taught 
them to worship Tien, the great creating, preserving and destroy- 
ing power. He also invented a method of registering time and 
events by making certain knots of thongs, or cords, twisted out of 
the bark of trees. 

LEGENDS OF EARLY CHINESE HISTORY. 

Fuh-he separated the people into classes, giving to each a par- 
ticular name. He discovered iron, appointed certain days for the 
people to show their gratitude to heaven by offering the first fruits 
of the earth, and invented the eight diagrams, which serve as the 
foundation of the Yi King. Chin-ming invented the plow. He is 
also said to have discovered in one day no less than seventy dif- 
ferent species of plants that were of a poisonous nature and seventy 
others that were antidotes against their baneful effects. 

The wife of Hwang-te first observed the silk produced by the 
worms, first unraveled their cocoons and first worked the fine fila- 
ments into a web of cloth. Yao established markets in many parts 
of the Empire and induced the people to hold annual fairs. Shun 
encouraged engineers to devise plans for drainage. Chou gave free 
reign to all his evil passions and the people revolted. Woo-wang 
divided the kingdom into seventy-two feudal states and this in time 
led to seventv-two different revolts. 

Even nine hundred years before the birth of Christ the Tar- 
tars descended upon the Empire and made much trouble. They 
made predatory incursions into the state and though they were 
invariably driven off, yet from this time they remained a constant 
source of danger and annoyance to the Chinese until the time when 
they became masters of the Empire, sixteen hundred years after 
Christ. 

The " first universal Emperor " was known as Che Hwang-te. 



126 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 



His capital was at the present Segan-foo. At thirteen years of age 
he ascended the throne, 246 B.C. He built a palace which was the 
wonder of the world, constructed roads through the Empire, built 
canals, erected numerous handsome public buildings. He raised 
an army of 300,000 men and marched against the Tartars. He 
killed all Tartars within the Empire and drove those on the borders 

into the mountains 
of Mongolia. He 
put down the rebel- 
lion in Honan and 
conquered the dis- 
tricts now known as 
southern China. 

It was he who 
conceived the idea 
of building the Chin- 
ese Great Wall to 
protect the northern 
states of the Empire. 
His design was for 
a wall which would 
cross the entire 
northern borders 
from the sea to the fartherest western corner of the modern prov- 
ince of Kansu. The work was begun under his immediate super- 
vision in 214 B.C., but he died before it was completed. Much of 
this Great Wall has been destroyed, but as it originally stood on 
the border line between Mongolia and China proper, with all its 
windings and the double and triple lines erected at some points, 
it had a total length of about 2,000 miles. Its mean height was 
about twenty-six feet and its width twenty feet. The structure 
represented a solid mass of over 4,000,000 cubic feet of masonry. 
No other nation ever attempted a work of masonry so stupendous 
as this and representing so vast an outlay of money and labor. 

The wall served for centuries to prevent military expeditions 
of the Tartars from entering China. Sentinels kept guard on the 




THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 127 

walls and from their towers gave timely warning of the enemy's 
approach. All natural passages were guarded by encampments 
filled with troops. Every gate had its little garrison around which 
towns soon sprung up serving as market places for the surround- 
ing populace. Back of this barrier the Chinese were able to de- 
velop their national unity and to concentrate their energies. When 
Genghiz Khan finally breached the wall in the thirteenth century 
it had protected the Empire for a period of at least 1,000 years. It 
is a question whether any of the original work of the wall remains 
standing. In the severe Mongolian climate a very few years suffice 
to crumble most ordinary buildings. 

FAMOUS CHINESE WALL. 

Nearly all of the eastern section of the wall, from Ordos to the 
Yellow Sea, was rebuilt in the fifth century, and the double rampart 
along the northwest frontier of the plains of Pekin was twice re- 
stored in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The lines of the 
wall have been modified often. Some portions were abandoned 
altogether. Others were consolidated into a new form. There is 
a great difference in the style and workmanship at various points. 
North of Pekin the wall is still in a state of perfect condition. In 
the western districts along the Gobi frontier the wall is little more 
than an earthen rampart, while in many places all traces of it have 
disappeared. The number of people employed and the length of 
time required in building the Great Wall of China, probably repre- 
sents a greater expenditure of labor and treasure than did the 
pyramids of Egypt. 

Two-thirds of the population of the world is situated in the 
Asiatic continent. There still is and probably will be for all time 
mystery as to where that portion of the population known as the 
Chinese came from. It is no longer a matter of scientific belief 
that the civilization of modern Europe and America had its origin 
in the plateau of Central Asia. This civilization must be traced to 
the basin of the Nile. Asiatic influence worked great changes 
upon the barbarous tribes of Europe in previous times. But it 
seems more than probable that Europe and Asia owe all of the 



128 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

best that they possess to Africa and possibly to that submerged 
continent known in fable as Atlanta, of whose existence at some 
time past there can no longer be doubt. 

The movement of civilization for centuries was from the east 
to the west. But that movement has been reversed, and, " intel- 
lectual life now radiates from Europe and America to the remotest 
corners of the world. Wherever the European explorers first set- 
tled, they doubtless began their civilizing work by massacring, 
enslaving and otherwise debasing the natives, but the beneficial 
influences of stronger races have ever commenced by mutual hatred, 
mistrust and antagonism. The conflicting elements everywhere 
contend for the mastery before they awaken to the conviction that 
all alike are brothers of the same family." 

WORD " CHINA" UNKNOWN TO NATIVES. 

In the early history of the Empire it is interesting to know 
that the word " China " is never used by the native. In fact until 
he comes to Europe or the United States and becomes familiar 
with the languages of other countries he never hears the name. 
The name is supposed to have originated from the title of a dy- 
nasty of 1500 years ago known as the Tsin. The Hindu form of 
this word is China. The term " celestial " is never applied by the 
people to their Empire. Originally the natives speak of their land 
as Chung-kwo, or " the Middle Kingdom," or " Celestial Empire." 
Since the Manchu dynasty came into power the official title for the 
Empire has been Tatsing-kwo, meaning " The Great and Pure 
Empire." 

Other titles which have been given the Empire by the natives 
in the past have been Se-hai, or " Four Seas "—that is, the Uni- 
verse ; Nwi-ti, or " Innerland ; " Shipa-shang, or " Eighteen Prov- 
inces ; " Hoakwo, or " Flowery Land." The term which the peo- 
ple have applied to themselves is "Children of Han," or " The 
Men of Tsang," in reference to two celebrated dynasties of the 
past. They have also for themselves another name " Timin," a term 
which is supposed to mean " Black-Haired Race." Reclus states : 

" But there is no precise term of general acceptance either for 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 129 

the country or for the people, and the same is largely true of the 
mountains, rivers, provinces and inhabited districts, the names of 
which are mere epithets, descriptive, historical, military or poetical, 
changing with every dynasty, or replaced by other epithets of an 
equally vague character." 

LONG RECORD OF EXPLORATIONS. 

Explorations of the land of the Empire by the natives them- 
selves or by foreigners have been in progress for many centuries. 
Twenty-two centuries before the birth of Christ the land was topo- 
graphically known in detail from the Pacific Ocean to the Gobi 
desert. Geographical studies have been part of the curriculum of 
all Chinese schools since the time of Christ. Marco Polo spent 
seventeen }^ears in the country and he was followed by many other 
noted travelers. At the end of the seventeenth century French 
missionaries were the official astronomers and mathematicians of 
the Empire. A Frenchman in 1688 was requested by the impe- 
rial government to co-operate in determining the new frontier line 
between Russia and the Chinese Empire. 

Bouvet, Regis and Jartoux received orders from the Chinese 
Emperor to construct an imperial map of the land, and this is still 
the standard to which modern explorers refer their observations. 
This geographical work, while of great value to those who were to 
come after, has not as yet, though, excited the interest that has the 
work of endeavoring to determine the origin of the race. No 
higher authority on this subject can be found than Elisee Reclus, 
who, in " The Earth and Its Inhabitants," devotes this important 
paragraph to that subject: 

" The Chinese people constitute one of the most distinct varie- 
ties of mankind. They are commonly regarded as a branch of the 
so-called Mongol tribes, although presenting a marked contrast to 
the nomad tribes of this name. The very expression Mongol, to 
which a more precise meaning was formerly assigned, denotes at 
present little more than the relation of contact or proximity between 
the East Asiatic nations. The Chinese are evidently a very 
mixed race, presenting a great variety of types in the vast region 






130 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

stretching from Canton to the Great Wall, from the Pacific sea- 
board to Tibet. Of these types the Mongol is perhaps the least 
common among the " Children of Han." 

The average Chinaman considered as belonging to this as- 
sumed Mongolian type, is represented as of low stature, somewhat 
symmetrical form, although occasionally inclined to obesity, espe- 
cially in the north, with round face, high cheek bones, broad flat 
features, small nose, small oblique and black eyes, coarse black 
hair, scant beard, yellow, brown or even light complexion, accord- 
ing to the climate. The head is mostly long or sub-dolichocepha- 
lous, whereas that of the Mongolians is rather round or brachy- 
cephalous. 

The old Chinese writing's, including those of Confucius, 
already speak of the contrasts presented by the physical traits 
and moral character of the different peoples in the Empire. 

MEN OF THE NORTH WERE BRAVE. 

" Those of the north are spoken of as brave, the southerners 
as endowed with wisdom, the men of the east as kind and friendly, 
those of the west as more upright and honest. But however this 
be it is certain that the natives of the various provinces present the 
sharpest contrasts with each other. The true national link is their 
culture rather than any common racial element. For the abori- 
ginal elements have been diversely modified by mixture with Bur- 
mese, Malays, Tartars, Mongols, Tibetans and other still half- 
savage hill tribes, which have no collective ethical designation. 
For thousands of years the agricultural populations of diverse ori- 
gin, settled in the Hoang-ho and Yang-tze-kiang basins, have had 
the same historic destinies, speak dialects of the same language 
and have become one nation. 

Many differences between the primitive stocks have been 
effaced, but the differences are still conspicuous in some of the 
southern provinces, notably in Fokien and Kwang-tung, the na- 
tives of which seem to form two races not yet thoroughly fused. 
But whence came that primitive stock, which, blending with diverse 
elements, resulted in the great Chinese nation ? The people for- 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 



lsi 



ffierly called themselves the l Hundred Families ' and pointed to 
the northwest beyond the Hoang-ho as the region whence the 




TYPES OF CHINESE WOMEN. 

migrating groups descended to the fluvial plains, where they either 
expelled or subdued and absorbed the less civilized aborigines. 



132 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

" Nor is it at all unlikely that the vast and fertile regions of 
the ' Yellow Lands/ lying mainly north of the Hoang-ho, playing 
a leading part in the early history of the Chinese people. Here 
was rQom for millions of agriculturists who may have gradually 
migrated eastwards according as the lacustrine basins dried up and 
the sands of the desert encroached upon the cultivated plains of 
Central Asia, where the forefathers of the Chinese had dwelt in 
close proximity with those of the Turki, Hindu and Iranian races. 
Every river valley became a highway of emigration and conse- 
quently of dispersion for the peoples of higher culture, and the arts, 
manners and speech of the early settlers may have thus been grad- 
ually diffused from north to south throughout the Empire." 

" The Chinese nation has thus passed through successive 
stages of progress answering to those of other civilized peoples, 
only in China the early evolutions were brought sooner to a close 
than elsewhere. The European races were still rude barbarians 
when the Chinese were writing their history some 4,000 years ago. 
In spite of all their shortcomings the Chinese annals constitute 
the most authentic and complete historical records composed by 
mankind. But notwithstanding their ancient culture the Chinese 
are distinguished amongst all civilized peoples for the still primi- 
tive form of their speech." 

ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE. 

Dismiss it from the mind that for the present one may know 
where the Chinese race originated. As Reclus writes : " In pre- 
historic times the forefathers of the Chinese, Hindus, Chaldeans 
and Arabs must no doubt have been close neighbors, maintaining 
frequent relations with each other." The first page of Chinese 
history begins by describing " the nucleus of the nation as a little 
horde of wanderers, roving among the forests of Shan-si, without 
houses, without clothing, without fire to dress their victuals, and 
subsisting on the spoils of the chase, eked out with roots and 
insects." Whether these people who came to the Yellow river 
were originally from Babylonia or elsewhere it is not for science 
yet to say. 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 133 

That they were nomadic in their life appears to be without 
doubt. Their first governors of provinces were called " pastors " 
and " herdsmen." Their princes were spoken of as " pastors of 
men." The word " pastor " means but "to feed," and literally the 
herdsman is but he who leads the flocks to where the herbage grows, 
Once settled in what is now China, though, the first inhabitants 
took quickly to agricultural pursuits. They were not then as now 
cut off from the Western world by the great deserts of Central 
Asia. They entered China, so called, when a period of greater 
humidity existed in Asia than now, and Central Asia reduced 
to-day to cheerless plateaus and wastes, then possessed a verdure 
and vegetable life of its own. The first Chinese, having once 
reached the Yellow river, began the raising of grain for sustenance 
and of flax, which was woven into garments. 

RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY LIFE. 

During the period of more than a thousand years between the 
reign of Yao and the coming of the Han dynasty one gets from 
preserved manuscripts strong glimpses of the religious and literary 
life of China, much of the doings of monarchs and courts, but little 
of the domestic life of the people themselves. They tilled the soil. 
The women bore children in and out of season. Large families 
were encouraged, old people were revered, the mother-in-law was 
always greater than the wife, floods destroyed crops, famine and 
disease came and passed away, and that is about all that can be 
said of what the masses were doing. 

There were so many of them, diffusion of intelligence was so 
slow, food was so necessary, that the masses kept down, were little 
in sight except in uprisings, and, born in droves, passed away in 
droves, and were no more. A little bit of translation, extracted from 
German researches into Chinese manuscripts shows some color in 
the home life. It is this : 

" For gross offenses on her part a Chinese husband might beat 
his wife or have her killed. But where the wife was virtuous, not 
a gossip, and given wholly to her home, her lot even in the hum- 
blest families, was not a hard one. She was loved, and loved ; the 



134 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

husband was kind and gentle ; the children came up with gentle 
thoughts in their minds. If we take into consideration the enor- 
mous population which the soil of China sustained (even at the 
beginning of the Christian era) we must concede from such know- 
ledge as we have at hand that the common people, while often 
betrayed by unscrupulous rulers, led pure and happy lives. Such 
vices as were common to the Grecian and Roman empires in their 
best days were unknown to the Chinaman until after he received 
the same from foreign intruders." 

OUTSIDE WORLD DID NOT AFFECT. 

Century after century China felt but little, if any, the influ- 
ence of the outside world. Deserts to the west of her borders, the 
Pacific on the east, the black wastes of the Siberian country on the 
north, isolated her from every race in the world but the Hindu on 
the south. 

When Christ was born at Bethlehem, the princes of China in 
conjunction with the princes of India, ruled approximately 6,500,- 
000 square miles of Asia, in which by the lowest estimate made by 
any historian there were then 50,000,000 people. Now rose the 
West — this West which is confronted to-day with the defiance of 
the Yellow Man — the Orient against the Occident. Aurelius 
Antoninus sent embassies from Rome to China in 166 A.D. Those 
^embassies found a pestilence upon the land. For eleven years a 
mysterious disease ravaged the people. Not until a Taoist priest 
discovered a magical cure did the plague cease, but after the plague 
for several centuries came insurrection after insurrection, revolt 
after revolt against corrupt or ambitious rulers. 

Chang Keo was defeated by Tsaou Tsaou. Tsaou Pei, Lew 
Pei and Sun Keuen divided the Empire between them (220 A.D.) 
and it took the name of the Three Kingdoms. The portion of the 
Empire which fell to the lot of Tsaou Pei was that where to-day the 
forces of allied Europe and America are entrenched. So bitter were 
the insurrections in progress that eventually China was tempora- 
rily divided into two great political sections — the North and the 
South. 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 



13E 



Men not of Chinese descent became rulers only to be deposed. 
Outside races forced their way in, married and intermarried and 
added to the general disturbance and ruin. Not until the coming 
of the Suy dynasty (590) was order restored in the Empire and 
China again advanced along the pathway of civilization. By the 
opening of the seventh century the Empire had resumed its expan- 
sive force and its learned men became known as the ablest and 




THE TEMPLE OP FIVE HUNDRED CHINESE GODS. 

most intelligent explorers of the time. Then too, they found, when 
brought into comparison with the white races controlling Rome. 
Gaul, Germania and Britain, that the West was in the hands of 
comparative barbarians and the East master of all the best o 
knowledge. 

For a thousand years at least, the West, whenever brought 
into contact with China, gave it no example of progress greater 



136 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

than China's own and it is not to be wondered at that the Mongol- 
ian, through natural habits of close observation, came to look upon 
the white man as an inferior being, a " dog " at the threshold of the 
house of the world, a ravenous meat eater, one who gave to age and 
woman no respect, measured by Chinese standards, a worshiper of 
invisible gods, a liar and a thief. It is pitiful that this should be 
so, but true while it is pitiful. 

In 635 a Nestorian priest, O-lo-peen by name, arrived from 
Rome and became such a favorite of the Emperor that he was per- 
mitted to build a church, and twenty priests were appointed to con- 
duct the services. Fourteen years after his appearance the throne 
of China was for the first time seized by a woman. Her name was 
Woo How, and she was a worthy predecessor of the present Dow- 
ager Empress. She was not beloved by her people, but did much 
to strengthen the internal structure of the Empire. China enjoyed 
comparative peace under her reign, while in western Asia the 
Mohammedans were entrenching themselves, also upon the Medi- 
terranean. 

RUSSIA MAKES HER APPEARANCE. 

The Huns had descended upon Europe and conquered for the 
time. In the general breaking up of the nations west of the border 
line of the Chinese Empire the first movement was taking place 
which was to end in the creation of the Russian Empire, the only 
real rival the Mongolian world has to-day in the lands known as 
Asia and Europe. At the close of the Tang dynasty (about 850) 
the historian finds a movement in China establishing a precedent 
for the present outbreak at Pekin. The Emperor Woo-t-sung, 
found that monasteries and church establishments were increasing 
with such rapidity that they meddled in the political life of the 
Empire. ! ' 

The foreign priests were tricky. They conspired with ene- 
mies to the throne. They used religion as a cloak for either their 
own ambitions or those of other men. Woo-t-sung abolished all 
temples, closed the monasteries and nunneries and sent the inmates 
back to their families. Christian, Buddhist and Magi priests were 
ordered to turn their faces westward in the direction of the places 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 137 

from where they came. At this time literature nourished in the 
Empire. Many books of travel were produced and many poems. 
The Chinese call the period the golden age of literature. 

After this period came the Mongolian invasion of the Empire, 
which, tremendous 'in its effect while taking place, did not make a 
lasting impression and then the Tartar or Manchu invasion result- 
ing in the formation of the dynasty which has made all Chinese 
history since 1844, and which is more completely treated of in 
another chapter. 

Before dismissing the subject of the early days of Chinese his- 
tory, the story of the Deluge as told by the Chinese teachers will 
prove interesting. China in common with nearly all other nations 
has its story of the Deluge when nearly all life perished from the 
earth. The historians tell the story of Null, of the mighty flood 
that came, of his escape in an ark and of its resting upon Mount 
Ay-ahr-at in eastern Tibet. According to the story in Chinese 
records Nuh was warned in a vision of the destruction of the world 
by water. As a reason, the wickedness of mankind was assigned. 

TRADITION OF THE FLOOD. 

Nuh immediately commenced work on a great junk which he 
completed and covered with pitch inside and outside. He entered 
this junk or ark with his wife and three sons, but the Chinese 
records say he took nothing with him except rice, millet, silk 
worms and a tortoise — the last being the Chinese emblem of time. 
Nuh had hardly completed his preparations when the flood 
descended and for days and months the junk drifted about upon the 
waters until a stork came to the window with a sprig or willow in 
its beak and then Nuh understood that the waters were abating. 

Finally the junk grounded on the peak of a high mountain 
and Nuh with his family came forth and built a temple on the 
spot. The parallel of this story to that of the Biblical story of the 
flood in Genesis has often led scientific students of the Bible to 
believe that the Jewish and Christian story of the flood was taken 
bodily from Chinese literature. 

Indeed in the tenth chapter of Genesis where the children of 



138 EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 

Noah are enumerated trie Chinese are mentioned under their 
ancient name of Sinite. Sinas or Sinim was the ancient name of 
China coming from the Sanskrit. 

CHINAMEN WONDER AT GENESIS. 

In the sixth chapter of Genesis the phrase is used " Sons of 
God." Chinese scholars are struck by this passage more than by 
any other in the Deluge story of Genesis because all Chinamen 
claim to be descendants from Heaven. Their Emperor is the Son 
of Heaven. They naturally find their belief in the story of Gene- 
sis being of Chinese origin, in the peculiar phraseology found in 
the chapters — the phraseology not common to any nation in the 
world but the Chinese. In the sixth chapter there is a sentence 
" there were giants in the earth in those days." This is the only 
reference made to giants in the Bible and it is significant for the 
reason that the Chinese believe that man has descended from giants 
and not ascended from monkeys. 

It has often been noted that the Chinese of all nations, have 
seemed to be most deeply impressed by the legend of the flood. 
To the present day the gods of all Chinese temples are surmounted 
by ark shape ornamentations called " Ships of Heaven '' while on 
the rivers of the Empire are vessels of the same general lines as 
those of the ark. They are " pitched within and without with 
pitch " having a door " set in the side thereof" and a window high 
up — just such a window as that from which, according to Genesis, 
Noah released the dove. 

It has been conceded that the story of the Deluge among the 
Semitic races had its origin with the Babylonians. The hero of the 
Babylonian story was Xisuthrus. In the Indian legend of the flood 
Manu was the hero. He was warned by a fish. The Jewish story, 
of course, has Noah for its hero. The Grecian story of Deucalion 
and Pyrrha is well known. Of the one hundred and twenty Indian 
tribes in America each has a story of the flood. That China may 
have been the birthplace of the legend is by no means improbable. 

If Hwang-ti, two hundred years before Christ, had not 
destroyed thousands of invaluable Chinese historical works, it is 



EARLY DAWN OF CHINESE HISTORY. 139 

quite probable that from their records scientists might be able to 
finally determine the origin of a thousand and one world-stories of 
to-day similar to that of the Deluge. But there are still surviving 
the destructive work of Hwang-ti some sixty books of the Histor- 
ical Records written nearly four thousand years ago. These con- 
tain the earliest authentic accounts of human events and they begin 
with the story of the Deluge — a story which the Christian world 
was not to receive until more than two thousand years after the 
Historical Records were written. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
A Net-work of Secret Societies. 

Thousands of Secret Societies Exist— Many Pledged to Murder— Taking of Human Life 
Made Easy — Brotherhood of the Early Race Recognized — Hatred of the White 
Man Preached - Loyalty Under Torture — Societies Threaten the Throne — The 
Queen of Heaven's Company — The Kingdom of Great Peace. 

A CHINAMAN appears to be only well contented with himself 
when he is a member of at least one secret society and with 

ample opportunity to become a member of half a dozen more, 
should he need them in the future. The Empire is a net-work in 
its social life of secret societies. Every need of life in the Empire 
appears to be met by the people with an organization of a secret 
society to overcome that need. The struggle for existence is some- 
thing frightful. It is almost impossible for an ordinary subject to 
ever reach the ears of the Emperor or his counsellors with a com- 
plaint. Yet aid is needed and the Chinese mind, quick to invent 
a substitute for the imperial authority, has selected the secret 
society as its medium for securing redress or needed help. 

It has been stated, " that the distinctive features of the national 
character are faithfully reflected in the profound changes continu- 
ally taking place. In Europe the initiative comes mostly from the 
individual ; in China from the hui or secret societies which are 
maintained from generation to generation. For there, nearly the 
whole nation is influenced and guided by the action of these social 
unions. In all the towns, nearly every person, rich or poor, be- 
longs toone or other of the numerous brotherhoods which are either 
publicly constituted or less secretly organized." 

Even the beggars have their societies with their statutes, 
special code, feasts and gatherings. Civil war after civil war has 
shown the great influence of these secret societies and has made it 
evident that the Chinese are by no means a stagnant people abso- 
lutely wedded to the old ideas, as has been so often asserted. It is 

impossible to accurately state how many of these societies exist in 
140 



A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 141 

China, but several European writers have compiled tables which 
enumerate at least 5,000, each distinctive from the other in its 
purpose. 

TAKING OF HUMAN LIFE ADVOCATED. 

The purpose of many of these societies is pure, and without 
them it is impossible to think of anything but chaos reigning in a 
large number of the settlements of the Empire. But others which 
started with a pure purpose have degenerated and come under the 
influence of strong men with vicious dispositions. This has led in 
numerous instances to murder being advocated and put into prac- 
tice where the purpose of a society has been thwarted by some out- 
side human agency. 

It is hardly necessary again to refer to the fact that the 
Chinaman believes he is doing good when he makes way with a 
" foreigner " or white man. In the event, though, of his killing 
one of his own race without a plea of self-defense, it is as a rule 
found necessary to supply some powerful influence to induce him 
to do so. Hence, the evil effect of such of the secret societies as 
have made murder one of their weapons. It would not be possible 
for such societies to exist an instant if their membership was not 
too frequently drawn from the most ignorant of the common classes. 

The Triad Secret Society is the oldest and most famous of the 
many Chinese organizations of a similar character. Its origin is 
so remote that the society's book of rites contains the statement 
that it has existed " since the foundation of the earth." The real 
name of the league is T'ien-Ti Hwey, or Hung League ; the 
name " Triad " comes from l( Sam-Hop Hwey," the popular title 
given to the organization. The society's teachings are exalted 
to such a degree that many of them seem to come bodily out of the 
Sermon on the Mount. Unfortunate^, however, their practice is 
different from their teaching. A more cruel organization was never 
created to become a thorn in the flesh of all workers in the cause 
of law and order. 

About two hundred and fifty years ago the Ming dynasty was 
overthrown by the Tartars. Short ty after this event the Triads 



142 A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

re-organized to oppose the Manchu conquerors. Since that time 
the league has enjoyed a reputation for lawlessness unparalleled 
even in the history of China. Its members spread over the whole 
of the Far East. Manila knew them, to her sorrow. The Dutch 
colonies suffered from their depredations. At length, when the 
residents of Manila had endured long enough the outrages of the 
society (which had made necessary many times the calling out of 
the garrison), members of the Triad League were forbidden by law 
to come into the colony. The Dutch followed the example of the 
Spanish without loss of time. 

Thus driven out from their former happy hunting grounds, 
the Triads looked for fresh fields and found them, as they supposed, 
in Sarawak. They descended, four thousand strong, on the Malays, 
burned their houses, seized their ships and were about to embark 
on what promised to be a career of bloody piracy, when Rajah 
Brooke appeared with a force of Dyaks and defeated them. Singa- 
pore has suffered as severely as any colony from the outrages of 
this society, and more than once the Triads have taken possession 
of the city. The}- were officially suppressed in 1878, but practically 
existed until a much later time. In Hong Kong they were from 
the foundation of the colony forbidden to enter, but they have from 
time to time crept in and have required the full force of the law 
before they could be restrained. 

TRIADS MAKERS OF REBELLION. 

There is practically no doubt that the Tai-ping Rebellion was 
due to the Triads. About the time of the instigation of the rebel- 
lion the Triads had so openly opposed the government that armed 
resistance was the only course open to them. They were then as 
lawless a band as at any period in their history, but the leader in 
the revolt, Hung Sau-Tsun, obtained some knowledge of Christ- 
ianity, and endeavored to purify the society and to urge the estab- 
lishment of a dynasty which should rule according to the high 
principals of Jesus and Confucius. 

" King of the Heavenly Kingdom of Universal Peace " was the 
title he gave himself. To his standard flocked enthusiasts and 



A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 



143 



malcontents of all classes ; to prevent desertion these were branded 
on the cheeks with the words "Tai-ping." But the good resolu- 
tions of the leader came to naught, as history tells. The morals 
of his followers and the ill-success of his armies disheartened him. 
He became craz- ^' ~ " — --^ 



ed, and the com- 
ing of General 
Gordon to com- 
mand the Chin- 
ese army com- 
pleted the over- 
throw of the re- 
bellion. 

The Society 
is governed by 
five grand mas- 
ters equal to one 
another in pow- 
er. The lodges 
are ruled by 
subordinate 
masters whose 
power is -abso- 
lute. Members 
are required to 
take an oath of 

implicit obedi- general Gordon. 

ence ; they also promise to support one another, even against 
the law. Members are known to fellow members by an ela- 
borate system of signs. These are so many and express such 
different meanings that communication between the members of the 
society is easily carried on and impossible of detection by an out- 
sider. 

During the worst riots houses were mysteriously protected 
by signs that the ordinary mortal could not discover, and informa- 
tion of the society's doings simply flies from one end of China to 




: : -7 



144 A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

the other. In fact, it is impossible to exaggerate the extent and 
mystery of the Triad's power. 

It is said on good authority that a part of the initiation cere- 
mony consists in the cutting off of the queue. It must be borne in 
mind that the queue is the badge of submission to the Manchu 
conqueror ; hence the daring of the act and its deep significance. 
The deed is, in fact, so rash that it is often omitted, and when the 
ceremony is carried out the member wears a false queue, or in other 
ways disguises the fact that the outward and visible sign of his 
loyalty is no more. 

BOXERS NUMBER MILLIONS OF MEN. 

The power of the Boxers has been much greater than has been 
credited, although their insurrection of the summer of 1900 was 
principally confined to the two provinces of Pechili and Shantung. 
Until the advance of the allied forces they have never been beaten 
in the great latter-day rebellions which have shaken China. 

They are a branch of the brotherhood which is universally 
dreaded in China, Singapore, Penang, Northern India and some 
parts of the United States, the Sam-Hop-Hwey, which is better 
known in China as the Triad society, the Hung League and other 
titles. 

It is true that the society was first formed for mutual protec- 
tion, aid and brotherly love, but many of its original purposes have 
been perverted. Now in innumerable instances members of the 
society are protected from the punishment of the law while politics 
have largely entered into its workings. The total membership of 
all the group of subordinate societies, grouped under the title Triad, 
is supposed to be between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000. While the 
coolies and lower classes form a large part of the membership, it is 
a mistake to suppose that the better classes are not equally promi- 
nent in its secret work. 

There are the secret societies of the " Nenuphar " and of the 
"Three Precious, Heaven, Earth and Moon," all aiming at the 
political and social renovation of the land. The names of the 
branches of these societies would more than fill an ordinary volume 



A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 145 

of print. G. W. Cook is extensively quoted in his dissertation on 
the evils of secret society co-operation in China. He describes the 
people as addicted to the co-operate habit. The evil combine to- 
gether for the purpose of robbing or resisting robbery, and for all 
manner of fanciful objects. u But these societies have all one 
tendency—to squeeze the non-members." 

CHARGED WITH WHOLESALE ROBBERY. 

From the Triad society, which has been at the bottom of so 
many rebellions, to the Tailors Union at Hong Kong, the rules 
and regulations of which have been published, all have the same 
practical object in view. The Tinte Brotherhood, the Triads, the 
Heaven and Earth Society, the Queen of Heaven's Company, the 
Flood family, the Pure Tea Set, are all obnoxious. A " memorial 
published in the Pekin Gazette states, ' they carry off persons in 
order to extort ransoms for them ; they falsely assume the characters 
of police officers ; they build false boats professedly to guard the 
grain fields, and into these they put from ten to twenty men, who 
cruise among the rivers, violently plundering the boats of travelers 
or forcibly carrying off the wives and daughters of the Tanka boat 
people. The inhabitants of the villages and hamlets fear these 
robbers as they would tigers a no* do not offer them any resistance. 
The husbandman must pay these robbers a charge, else as soon as 
his crop is ripe it is plundered and the whole field laid bare. 
In the precincts of the metropolis they set fire to places during 
the night, that under pretense of saving and defending them they 
may plunder and carry off.' " 

These secret societies are not alone confined to China. They 
permeate all parts of Asia. They are found in Corea and Japan. 
One of the early secret societies of Japan had its origin in the 
following incident which is now part of the national history. In 
1 701 a young noble named Asano Takumi No Kami was appointed 
to receive the Mikado's envoy at the Shogun. It chanced that he 
gave offence unintentionally to Kira Kodzuke No Suke, an old 
gentleman learned in court ceremonies, who was his instructor in 
the proper etiquette to be observed on this occasion. Kodzuke No 
10 






146 A NET- WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

Suke taunted his pupil on his breach of etiquette until the latter 
could no longer control his indignation and attempted to kill his 
in suiter with a knife. 

This took place in the palace of the Shogun, where to draw a 
sword in anger is punishable with the death penalty. Takumi No 
Kami failed to kill his tormentor and received orders to kill him- 
self according to the usual Hara Kari fashion. His castle was 
confiscated and his friends and associates were turned adrift, thus 
becoming ronin or " masterless men." Amongst these was O-ishi 
Kura No Suke, one of Takumi's dearest friends. He formed a 
secret society to avenge the death of his chief. 

FORTY-SEVEN PLEDGED TO KILL. 

This society contained forty-seven members, and for two years 
they developed their plan. In 1703, being prepared for action, 
they attacked Kodzuke No Suke at his residence and cut off his 
head, which they deposited on Takumi's grave in the cemetery at 
Tokio. Their own graves are still marked with tombs and effigies 
in a cemetery near Siba. In this conn< :ti< n fl1 ^ practice of Hara 
Kari needs explanation The word is from the Japanese — Hara, 
belly ; Kari, cutting or cut. The definition is suicide by disem. 
bowelmeut, formerly practiced 111 J ., . Daimios and members 

of the military class when unwilling to survive some personal or 
family disgrace, or in order t< avoid the headsman's sword after 
having received the sentence of death. 

In the latter case the act was performed in the presence of a 
witness and was accompanied by elaborate formalities. At the 
moment the suicide ripped open his abdomen with his dirk his 
head was struck off by the sword of his second, who was usually 
a kinsman or an intimate friend. Hara Kari was instituted in the 
days of the Japanese Ashi Kaga dynasty, 1336 a.d. One of the 
highest authorities on the subject of Hara Kari says : 

u The practice of Hara Kari, or sappuku, maintained for cen- 
turies amongst the nobles, attests the strength of will with which 
they are capable of asserting their personal dignity. Although 
not of native growth — for frequent mention is made of it in the 



A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 147 

Chinese annals — this custom has nowhere else become a national 
institution. Whether commanded by the government in order to 
spare the nobleman a dishonorable death, or voluntarily performed 
in order to be indirectly avenged on an opponent by compelling 
him to give life for life, the act was always executed with scrupu- 
lous nicety. 

" No instance has been recorded of one of these determined 
suicides ever uttering an unworthy complaint in the presence of 
his friends assembled to witness his self-immolation. Many cases, 
on the contrary, are mentioned of heroes resolute enough to com- 
pose verses or write their last wishes in their own blood after 
disemboweling themselves. Yet these men did not throw away 
their life rashly, and except where honor, rightly or wrongly under- 
stood, was at stake, voluntary deaths have always been rare in Japan. 

" But wherever the test of courage is demanded in either sex, 
the Japanese are excelled by no other people. The history of the 
forty-seven ronin, so determined in exacting vengeance for the 
murder of their master, so heroic in their self-sacrifice, is the most 
widely known in the country, and the graves of these daring men 
are still piously tended by the citizens of the imperial capital." 

The members of these Chinese or Asiatic secret societies are 
not cowardly as the term is ordinarily used. Brutal and cruel as 
are many of the objects of their societies, whether directed against 
foreigners or the present dynasty, the members often show a degree 
of courage, mentally as well as physically, which Westerners 
cannot fail to admire. 

ASIA CONTAINS BRAVE MEN. 

There is one race in Asia — the Bengalee — which openly 
acknowledges that it has not the heart to fight, though when in 
expectation of any form of non-contentious death it is more serene 
than the European ; but the immense majority of the remaining 
seven hundred millions are personally brave men. We do not say 
that they are quite equal to Englishmen or to Germans, or to the 
picked soldiers of any European country, but they are equal to 
any Southerners, or to the average militia of any land. 



148 A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

The Asiatic Turk is a born soldier, usually quite devoid of 
nervousness as well as of fear ; the Arab, though much more sen- 
sitive, and therefore more liable to panic, is at least as careless of 
death or physical pain. He has never in modern times fought 
with Europeans in Asia, but his half-brother, the Soudanese, has 
extorted respect even from the disrespectful " Tommy.'' An army 
of Dervishes led by English officers would, it is acknowledged, 
face most armies with success. The Persian is a laughable soldier 
— very much like a Frenchman — who has done in quite recent 
times heroic deeds, and who avoids battle, when he avoids it, rather 
from a sort of selfishness than from fear, 

FACE SHOT AND SHELL COOLLY. 

The Indians, Bengalees and some classes of Madrasses ex- 
cepted, are quite singularly free from cowardice. That is acknow- 
ledged when the Indian is the Sikh or the Ghoorka, or in a less 
degree any variety of drilled man, but is true also of the undrilled. 
The ambulance man and the kind of camp follower, of whom 
Rudyard Kipling writes as " Gunga Din," — a nearly impossible 
name, by the way — is taken almost haphazard from the population 
and faces the shot quite as coolly as the average European, while, 
if a shot overtakes him and his hour arrives, he is less complain- 
ing. The Indo-Chinese are not soldiers, and as a rule have not 
the soldierly instincts ; but the Burmese " dacoits " — that is, 
" klephts," half patriots, half brigands — who so grievously wor- 
ried England the first four years of the conquest, constantly died 
like heroes ; while the Roman Catholic converts of Annam accepted 
martyrdom in thousands with the tranquil complacency of the 
early Christians. 

They were only asked for the most part to destroy their tem- 
ples, give up their pastors, and be quiet ; and they accepted death 
in preference. The Chinese have contended w T ith each other like 
heroes — the Mohammedan Chinese having faced extermination, 
and the Tai-pings, who were undrilled, having died in scores of 
thousands while battling with their drilled fellow-countrymen under 
Gordon. To the coolness with which the Chinese met death all 







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JAPANESE INFANTRYMEN WITH THE ALLIED ARMY IN CHINA 



A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 149 

observers bear witness ; while their kinsfolk, the Tartars, overran 
the world and fought like heroes, though well aware that a wounded 
man had little chance except of death by torture or starvation. 

During the war of England and France with China in 1857, a 
war which gave the Chinese many pretexts for not only attacking 
the Manchu dynasty, but also for endeavoring to expel the for- 
eigners from the Empire, Sir Robert Hart, then a young man in 
the British consular service in China, was sent to Tung Chow to 
meet the Chinese leaders and discover a proposition for peace. He 
was accompanied by two other representatives of England, a French 
representative, a correspondent of the London Times and a guard 
of twenty-six English soldiers and twelve Frenchmen. 

They met the Chinese leaders at Tung Chow and the terms 
were made upon which the French and English forces were to enter 
Pekin. Then Sir Robert Hart, who has but lately been freed at 
Pekin by the allied forces, and who has been the Inspector General 
of Chinese customs for years, started back to Taku to report to 
Lord Elgin and the commanders of the French and English fleets 
awaiting their return. Before they were any great distance from 
Tung Chow they were ambushed and captured by various members 
of the societies interested m the revolt. The prisoners were taken 
into Pekin. What followed was approved by the ruling dynasty. 
The story is an illustration of the Chinaman's conception of re- 
venge, he holding, with much show of truth, that foreign invasion 
of his land has generally been without warrant. 

HANDS AND FEET TWISTED. 

Sir Robert Hart and his companions were immediately sub- 
jected to horrible tortures. Some of them were kept lying in the 
palace- yard bound hand and foot with ropes that were constantly 
twisted. When they asked for food filth was forced into their 
mouths. Others of the prisoners were put into cages and carried 
through the city to show the people what foreign " devils " were 
like. Sir Robert Hart was one of these. He was put into a cage 
in which he could neither lie down or stand up. He received barely 
enough food and water to keep him alive, while his official torturers 



150 A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

constantly cnt and stabbed at him, and the mob was invited to abuse 
him in every way. They cut three fingers off Sir Robert Hart's 
hand and stabbed him in many places. In his mutilated hand they 
left a permanent record of the Chinese method of treating ambas- 
sadors. Odd as it may sound, he was more fortunate than many 
of the others, for about half of them died under their tortures. 

The Chinese cut ears, noses, toes and fingers off their victims, 
laughing as they did so. They cut many of the French and Eng- 
lish slowly to pieces. They put out their eyes, twisted their limbs, 
and mutilated them in every conceivable manner. 

At last the commanders of the allied forces, anxious about 
their comrades, began their march on Pekin. The Chinese then 
had to give up what was left of their victims. Their behavior 
then was the most extraordinary of the whole affair and most pecu- 
liarly Chinese. 

Sir Robert Hart came back without his three fingers, with 
marks on his limbs where the cords had cut through to the bone 
and unable to stand. M. de Lauture, the French commissioner, 
was mutilated in the most horrible manner and never recovered. 
At the same time that he sent back these wrecks, Prince Kong 
wrote to the French Envoy : 

" I have the honor to inform you that I gave orders that the 
commissioner of your noble empire, M. de Lauture, should be 
treated with the greatest respect, and that my intention after ar- 
ranging with him as to the signature of the convention was to send 
him back in a becoming manner with his countrymen." 

DEAD IN A CHINESE CART. 

The Mandarin who actually brought back the victims even 
surpassed Prince Kong, for he said in a most cheerful manner to 
the allied generals : 

" We have brought them all back. They are all here." 

They were all there — in a cart — half of them dead and the rest 

of them crippled. Out of twenty-nine Englishmen thirteen were 

dead and out of thirteen Frenchmen seven were dead. When 

Lord Elgin heard of the deaths of the captives he issued orders 



A NETWORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 151 

that the Summer palace in Pekin should be razed to the ground. 
It required two days to do this, which has been pronounced the 
greatest act of vandalism in history. In spite of the offenses 
for which the destruction of the palace was to atone, the act aroused 
a storm in England ; for not only were the buildings looted and 
destroyed, but many brutal acts were committed in the name of 
punishment. The razing of the palace was but a small part of the 
whole story. The soldiers were intoxicated with the license of 
conquest and there was no limit to their vengeance. 

OBJECTED TO DESTRUCTION OF PALACE. 

The French commander objected to all this, because he con- 
sidered that the destruction of the palace might interefere with the 
negotiations for peace. Lord Elgin merel}* responded that he had 
no other way of recording his condemnation of the cruelty and 
treachery of the Chinese. Even war itself must be ten times more 
horrible if peaceful emissaries were not to have protection. He 
added that in case he had asked for the killing of all the perpetra- 
tors of the crimes against the captives, the Emperor would cheer- 
fully have produced as many hundreds or even thousands as were 
necessary and beheaded them at once, but the victims would not 
have been the guilty parties. 

The story of the escape of Fra Fridella, an Italian priest, from 
the Boxers in the summer of 1900 is an interesting one. Before 
he attempted to escape from Hen-Sueb-fu, he witnessed the death 
of his bishop and six of his fellow priests by torture. He saw his 
mission looted and then set on fire and burned. He witnessed the 
killing of seven hundred native converts to Christianity, then lie 
determined on flight. 

Fridella had once saved the life of a son of a villager. The 
man, deeply grateful, had sworn never to forget his debt, and now 
his opportunity occurred. Finding the missionary in a retreat 
among the rocks and clumps of shrubbery the native daily brought 
him food and provided him with sufficient clothing. Thus Fri- 
della was enabled to preserve life and strength. When the ex- 
citement had somewhat died down the cloud of fanatics having 



152 A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

swept to the south, the father counseled with his friend and a 
method of escape was determined upon. The Chinaman escorted 
his former benefactor to the banks of the Siang-Kiang river, not 
far away, the Caucassian being dressed as a native. Here the 
priest was to be put on board a junk and sail away to friends and 
safety. 

As the river men were all members of the secret society from 
which the rebellion sprang, and as it was hardly to be expected 
that they would tolerate the presence of one of the hated foreigners, 
strategy was necessary. A Chinese coffin was secured, provided 
with some skillfully concealed apertures to admit air and a quantity 
of food placed in it. In this gruesome receptacle the priest was 
placed, the coffin bound up in the usual manner, and a south pass- 
ing vessel agreed to transport the package to its destination. 

IN VERY CLOSE QUARTERS. 

The desperate voyage began. All went well for the first two 
days, the inconvenience Fridella suffered from his cramped quarters 
and his limited breathing space soon wearing off through callous- 
ness. He was able to reach the provisions that had been placed 
alongside of him, but he had little taste for food. It was on the 
morning of the third day that a group of sailors gathered around 
the coffin and planned to break open the richly ornamented casket, 
which, they reasoned, contained the body of some dignitary who 
had in all probability been dressed in his robes of state and all his 
jewels when laid away in his last bed. 

The discussion occurred within easy earshot of Fridella. He 
knew that the discovery of the deception practiced on the sailors 
would arouse them to instantly take his life, unless an incredible 
Fate should ordain otherwise. He knew the superstitious nature 
of the people who thus had him in their power, particularly on all 
matters relating to death. He might so play on their sense of the 
supernatural, he considered, that their project might be delayed, 
but he knew that it was only a question of time until they sum- 
moned enough courage to investigate and then, surety, all hope 
would be lost. So he determined to let matters take their course. 



A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 153 

believing with instinctive fatalism, that nothing could postpone 
the end if it were destined to occur. 

FOUND PRIEST INSIDE OF COFFIN. 

The sailors broke the coffin open. Beside themselves with 
mingled fear and astonishment when they saw, instead of a dead 
Mandarin, a live foreigner, their first impulse was to kill him. 
Fridella, with unnatural calmness, argued with them. He intended 
them no harm, he said, and if they would deliver him safely in 
Hong Kong a large reward would be paid. He aroused the cupid- 
ity of the Chinese, and after conferring among themselves, his 
proposition was accepted. 

The boat had now reached the main traveled channels and 
great care was necessary to avoid detection, the river and its banks 
being crowded by hordes of hostiles. The conditions on which the 
sailors consented to convey the priest to his point of vantage was 
that he must retain his position in the coffin, not daring to show 
himself. Had it been discovered that the watermen were attempt- 
ing to rescue a foreigner, they had no doubt that short shrift would 
be made of them. 

In the same manner that he had started, Father Fridella took 
up the second and even more dangerous part of his journey. Day 
and night, without rest, without even the opportunity of turning 
over in his narrow bed, the unfortunate missionary lay in death's 
house, now and then munching in a feeble sort of way at his scant 
hoard of rapidly decomposing food. For hours at a time the man 
would lapse into unconsciousness; his will-power was leaving him; 
all hope failed him and he was indifferent to his end. 

First he had avoided sleep — later he knew not whether he was 
asleep or awake — whether the Orientals that he heard moving about 
him were men or merely figments of his disordered imagination. 
Racked by fiendish pains that seemed to pervade his whole tor- 
tured and imprisoned frame, he became frequently delirious and 
laughed and sang. 

Both river sides were now aflame with an open anti-foreign 
war, and by night and day the priest heard, when sensible, the 



154 A NET-WORK OF SECRET SOCIETIES. 

incessant cry, " Death to the foreign i devils.' Death to them all." 
At times the yells seemed perilously near, but he kept his word, 
he did not move ; indeed he could not. At last they reached Hong 
Kong. Here, more dead than alive, Father Fridella was released 
from the coffin, but retained a prisoner aboard the junk, while a 
note in his handwriting was dispatched by devious Chinese routes 
to the chief Italian priest in the city mission. 

It was brief, but legible and intelligible, though the hand that 
wrote it had shaken in the writing ; it told of his faithful rescue, 
but not of its horrors, and begged that the reward promised might 
be paid so that he might be released. Immediately upon receipt 
of the note the reward, a large one, was paid to the messenger, 
who received it in a characteristically emotionless manner. 

" When ? '' he simply asked. 

Feverishly the priest replied : 

" At once. O, you cannot be too quick," for he well knew 
the dangers through which this fellow had passed, and doubted 
more than a little as to whether he would really see him, and 
if so, alive. 

" To-night," briefly responded the Celestial, and then he went 
away. 

Knowing the natures with which they had to deal, the mission 
priests made no attempt to shadow the messenger. It would have 
aroused his suspicions, besides failing of its purpose. Late that 
night there was a timid knock at the mission gate. A brother 
hastened to answer it. He could see no one. But as his eyes 
accommodated themselves -to the gloom he was able to discern a 
box-like shape, from which he thought he heard the moans and 
sighs of a strong man in pain. He went nearer. It was a Chinese 
coffin, partly open, in which was lying a living, breathing man. 
At once he knew him to be Fra Fridella, of whose coming he had 
been told and whom he had known long ago in Italy. 

Secret societies are on the increase in number in the Empire. 
If the Allied Powers of Europe do not overturn the present 
Manchu dynasty, these societies certainly will, in a few very short 
years, and restore to the throne the native Chinese. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Confusion of Religions Exists. 

Three Distinct Sects in the Empire — Followers of Confucius Powerful — Buddhism Still 
Thrives — Worship of Spirits and Natural Objects Prevails— Converts to Christianity 
Less Than 2,000,000— Power of the Jesuits— What Ricci Accomplished— Extinction of 
the Jewish Religion — The Feng-Shui. 

THREE religions are acknowledged by the Chinese — Confu- 
cianism, Buddhism and Taoism. The Emperor is considered 
the high priest of the Empire and can alone with his imme- 
diate representatives perform the great religious ceremonies. Con- 
fucianism is the state religion. 

With the exception of the practice of ancestral worship, which 
is everywhere observed throughout the Empire and which was fully 
commended by Confucius, Confucianism has little outward cere- 
monial. The study and contemplation and attempted performances 
of the moral precepts of the ancients constitute the duties of a Con- 
fucianist. Buddhism and Taoism present a gorgeous and elaborate 
ritual in China. The bulk of the people are Buddhists. There are 
about 30,000,000 Mohammedans, 1,000,000 Roman Catholics and 
50,000 Protestants. Most of the aboriginal hill tribes are still 
nature worshipers. 

Like all Orientals, the Chinese love speaking in proverbs, and 
some of their popular sayings are no less admirable than our own. 
" The capital has many charms, but home has always its own," is 
a curious English sentiment, while there is something almost bibli- 
cal in the axiom : 

" With a clear conscience we may walk in darkness." 

Chinese conversation is full of these flowers of speech ; indeed, 
so often do they occur that they practically amount to habit of the 
mind. Unfortunately, in China, as elsewhere, precept and practice 
do not always go hand in hand. 

Hell to the Chinaman, through his religious belief, is a purga- 
tory, which must be experienced after an earthly death. According 

155 




CHINESE MANDARIN AND HIS WIFE), 



156 




L^ 



TYPICAL BOXER, SHOWING DRESS AND LONG-HANDLED 
BILLHOOK SCIMITER 




LI-HUNG CHANG-FROM HIS LATEST PORTRAIT 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS 157 

to the sins on earth, so is the degree of punishment administered in 
this purgatory. After the spirits have suffered there they are 
returned to the earth in the form of men or animals. For every 
offense committed on earth there is, according to the Chinese relig- 
ion, a different and peculiar way of dismembering the spirit in pur- 
gatory. For instance, the murder of a husband by a wife is ranked 
as one of the great crimes. The wife in purgatory is impaled upon 
the sharp limbs of bare trees. The murder of a wife by a husband 
is not considered to be as great a crime. A man who murders his 
brother, when he reaches Hades, has his eyes pulled out with an 
enormous pair of tongs. His sightless body is then thrown into a 
lake where it floats for a hundred days. One who has been guilty 
of disrespect to a priest is laid upon a chopping block and cut in 
two. A blasphemer, or one who says that there is no soul, is dis- 
membered in purgatory. One who speaks ill of a Mandarin is 
punished by being put in a vessel filled with boiling water. A 
Chinaman who has unprovokably killed cows and calves is con- 
demned to be eaten by these animals during the expiatory period. 

THE CRANE A SACRED BIRD. 

The crane is a sacred bird in China. A citizen kills one. In 
purgatory his eyes are pecked out by a crane. A woman who kills 
her child has a board fastened about her neck and is pursued con- 
stantly by demon children. A son guilty of disrespect to his par- 
ents has his eyes gouged out and is beheaded. A traitor to the 
Emperor is sawed in half lengthwise. One who is wasteful of food 
— a very great crime in China — has his hands, feet and queue 
bound together behind his back and is suspended, face downward, 
for an indefinite period. A Mandarin who takes bribes is sliced 
with a sword while the cabinet minister who pockets taxes is beaten 
by clubs having spikes in the ends. It is part of this theory of 
purgatory devoutly preached to the Chinaman, who is, after all in 
many respects, yet a child of the first days of the world, that after 
the dwellers in purgatory have completed their punishments they 
are brought before the god of the lower world to learn what shall 
be done with them next. Now, it is to be remembered, that 



158 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

whether one has been good or bad on earth, this purgatory is not 
to be escaped after death. But if one has been good, the purgator- 
ial god returns them to earth to become princes and rich men. If 
they have been unworthy on earth, they are condemned to be sol- 
diers, working men, sailors, women and so on down to the lowest 
forms of human life. Where persons have been too bad to ever 
return to earth as men, their spirits are passed into the bodies of 
animals. Those who have sinned the least, inhabit the bodies of 
horses and cows, while others become snakes and rats. The fact 
that any animal may have a human spirit makes it wrong for a 
Chinaman to kill one of them. So, on the other hand, it is often 
not considered wrong to kill a white man because many of the 
priests teach that they are not men but devils. 

VARYING CHARACTER OF THE RELIGIONS. 

In China, as has been stated, there are three religions, the 
two most popular being Confucianism and Taoism, and the other 
the Buddhism of India. Confucius, or Kung-fu-tse (/'. *?., King, 
the holy master), however, was not the founder of the religion 
named after him. He protests repeatedly against such an assump- 
tion. The religion which he taught was the one of the days of 
antiquity, and Confucius maintains that he simply collected the 
ancient doctrines and rendered them in style appropriate to his 
time about 550-476 B.C. The so-called religion of Confucius is 
philosophy and ethics more than theology, because he studiously 
refrains from utterances concerning the existence and attributes of 
the divine. 

Almost contemporary with Confucius was Lao-tze, whose birth 
is fixed at 604 B.C. His system, which is usually characterized as 
rationalism, concerns especially the Tao, that is, the direct way, 
reason. In regard to Lao-tze everything depends upon the com- 
prehension of this Tao. Julien translated Tao-teh-King with " Le 
Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu " (The Book of the Straight Path 
and of Virtue). 

Dr. Chehners, another authority, does not translate Tao at all, 
maintaining that no Occidental language has a word which is com- 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 159 

prehensive enough. Some believe that nature expresses Tao best, as 
the abstract cause, or the principle of life and law, to which its devo- 
tees ascribe the principles of immateriality, of eternity, of the in- 
finite and the invisible. At any rate, it is plain that Tao originally 
was a very metaphysical idea, and it is quite possible that, like 
Confucius, Lao-tze took his idea from antiquity. 

As all the religions which begin with pronounced abstract 
metaphysical principles soon grow coarser in popular practice and 
become mere idolatry, superstition and miracles, so Taoism fared 
in China. First it was in opposition to the teachings of Confucius, 
then it approached Buddhism, and both finally became a supersti- 
tion which, partially in the lower strata of the people, became im- 
mensely popular. 

While Confucianism and Taoism are undoubtedly s}rstems of 
Chinese origin, Buddhism did not become popular in China until 
the first century of the Christian era. The circumstances accom- 
panying this introduction are purely historical and have been fre- 
quently described. It was Emperor Ming-ti, who, in 65 A.D., 
expressly recognized Buddhism as the third religion of state in his 
Empire. He not only sent Chinese savants to India to study 
Sanskrit and to translate Buddhist texts into Chinese, but he also 
invited Buddhist savants to come to China. 

CHRISTIANITY ONCE TOLERATED. 

It has often been observed religious indifferentism was the 
reason why three state religions were permitted in China ; that 
even the Emperor had to be present once a year in the temples of 
the Confucianists, Taoists and Buddhists. But this indifferentism 
may also be looked upon as religious tolerance, ascribing to the 
Mandarins the view that all religions have the same origin and 
follow the same aim. This was quite reasonable in China, because 
all three state religions contain little dogmatism, do not claim by 
any means to be based upon divine origin and are chiefly devoted 
to philosophy and morals. 

Hence it is quite explainable that at the outset Christianity, 
as a new teaching, was not only readily received in China, but was 






160 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

for a time treated with the same tolerance as Buddhism. This was 
the case with the Nestorian Christians who settled in China during 
the seventh century and of whose efforts the monument of Hsian-fu 
(Sigan-fu) speaks. It was erected in 781 and was found by Dr. 
Williamson in 1866, buried beneath a heap of debris. This monu- 
ment contains a Chinese inscription and a few lines in the Syrian 
language. For a long time prior to Dr. Williamson's discovery 
the existence of this monument was treated as apocryphal, though 
no less an authority than Gibbon insisted upon its genuineness. 

FIRST CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY. 

The inscription says that the first Christian missionary, who 
came to China in 655, had the name of Olopun. He was received 
in friendship by the Emperor and was given permission to teach 
his religion just as the other three religions were taught. The 
idea of a rivalry or an enmity between different religions did not 
seem to have existed. 

The Christian religion was named the religion of Ta-tsia, and 
the abode of the Nestorian priests was the Ta-tsia convent. The 
word Ta-tsia signifies Syria, and was soon extended to everything 
emanating from Rome and relating to Christianity. Sometimes 
the Christian religion was called the glorious teaching, while Con- 
fucianism was simply " the teaching," Taoism " the way " and 
Buddhism "the law" (dharma). These four religions existed in 
harmony together. Only the good they taught and did was con- 
sidered and the idea of envy and mutual hatred does not seem to 
have existed. Each religion was permitted to do good after its 
own fashion, about as physicians are looked upon, who gratuitously 
help the common people. 

Christianity appears to have spread rapidly, because there are 
authentic records of churches and convents in hundreds of cities — 
records of even high Chinese officials who became converts from 
Buddhism to Christianity, and proved to be great benefactors of 
the Christians in Tschangan, and particularly of the monks of 
Ta-tsia. This happy condition prevailed until 781, when the 
monument of Hsian-fu was erected. During the next century, 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 161 

"however, the Emperors, who then frequently resided in Tschan- 
gan, seems to have followed a different policy. In 1841 Emperor 
Wutung issued his notorious edict which abolished all Buddhist 
convents and caused a persecution of all foreign religions. The 
Christians were treated like the Buddhists, and the religion of Ta- 
tsia seems to have been completely exterminated in China since 
that time. While the Buddhists recovered slowly, Marco Polo 
found upon his journey in China that there were only idolaters in 
Hsian-fu and not a single Christian. 

A remarkable coincidence is that the inscription of the monu- 
ment of Hsian-fu mentions a choir director, Adam, who according 
to a Chinese version, had as a guest in the Ta-tsia convent a 
Buddhist named Prajna. The latter was engaged in translating a 
Buddhist text into Chinese, of which, however, he knew so little 
that he engaged Adam as collaborator. Adam, in turn, was rather 
weak in his knowledge of the Sanskrit. To overcome the mutual 
linguistic deficiency a Mongolian translation was used, and in this 
manner a work was completed so faulty that complaint was made 
to Emperor Ts-tsung. The Emperor criticised the translation 
severely, because it mingled Buddhist and Christian ideas. This, 
he added, could not be permitted, because the teachings of both 
were different and often contradictory. Adam should disseminate 
the teachings of the Michiho (Messiah) and Prajna those of 
Buddha, he decreed, but both should not be mixed. This decision 
of Emperor Te-tsung is of great historic importance, because it 
proves that Christians and Buddhists lived under the same roof. 

FOUR RELIGIONS AT PEACE 

At any rate, the settlement of West Roman monks in the 
Ta-tsia convent at Tschangan is the first attempt to disseminate 
Christianity, or at least its most important moral doctrines, in 
China, and it appears comprehensible that the four religions of 
China could dwell in peace and quietness so long as they simply 
confined themselves to moral doctrines in which they were even 
favored by the imperial government. Then came, beginning with 
the ninth century, the persecutions of Buddhists and Christians, 
11 



162 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

which ended with the total extermination of all Christians and 
their settlements in China. 

The Roman church later on made new efforts to spread 
Christianity in China, once during the thirteenth century and 
again, on a larger scale, toward the close of the sixteenth century, 
while the Protestant church has pressed its missionary work in 
China only since 1840 with energy. However, judging from the 
number of churches and convents at the time, Christianity has 
never since made such progress in China as during the seventh 
and eighth centuries. 

CHRISTIANITY PROTECTED BY EUROPE. 

In recent times Christian missionaries have enjoyed great 
liberty in China, but only because they were protected by the 
European powers. In the Chinese people the hatred of the Chris- 
tian religion — not so much on account of its errors in their con- 
sideration, as because of its foreign origin — has grown more and 
more fervent, until it culminated in the present formidable strife. 
The Chinese, whether he follows the teachings of Confucius, of 
Lao-tze or Buddha, will stand a great deal if he is let alone, but 
he hates everything foreign which is sought to be forced upon 
him. 

The recent horrors would have been severely condemned by 
men like Confucius, Lao-tze and Buddha, but nobody can expos- 
tulate with a people which has been politically inflamed and is 
actuated by know-nothingism. Such people will rather suffer 
death than accept reason and their patriotism is stronger than 
their religion. 

Upon Confucius and his disciples has always been placed the 
honor of having caused the cessation of human sacrifices in China. 
Yet long before the time of Confucius religious sacrifices had 
ceased to be offered. Confucius was opposed to the supernatural 
element found in so many systems of religion. He asked : 

" How should I pretend to know anything about heaven since 
it is so difficult to clearly understand what takes place on earth." 

To one of his disciples he said : 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 163 

" You have not yet learned to live, and yet you already rave 
about what may happen to you after death." 

Confucius was most concerned with the duties of man to his 
superiors, to his neighbor, to the state. His moral influence over 
his people has increased from age to age. Four hundred years 
after his death his only title still w£S Kung or " leader." Eight 
hundred years after his death he became the " first saint," after 
which his statue was clothed in a royal robe and crowned with a 
diadem. During the Ming, or last native dynasty, he was declared 
" The Master Holy, The Wisest, The Most Virtuous of Teachers." 
After his death a colony of disciples settled around his grave as 
vassals of his family. Sixteen hundred temples were raised to his 
honor, and he was solemnly recognized as the " Teacher of the 
Nation." 

HIS DESCENDANTS IN ONE CITY. 

His birthplace was at Kinfao. This city is still inhabited 
almost exclusively by his descendants, at least twenty thousand of 
whom bear his name. The chief temple raised in his honor is 
one of the largest and finest in China. The accumulated treas- 
ures of vases, bronze ornaments and carved woodwork form a com- 
plete museum of Chinese art. At the entrance of this temple is 
still shown a gnarled trunk of a cypress tree said to have been 
planted b}' Confucius. The present head of the family of descend- 
ants of the sage has eminent domain over 165,000 acres of laud. 
When Kinfao was seized by the Tai-ping secret society in its 
rebellion, the temple, the palace and the contents were all respected. 
The grave of Confucius was very close to the temple. Not far 
from the temple grounds is a cemetery by the small town of Tsin- 
hien, which for twenty-two hundred years has received the remains 
of all the descendants of Mengtze (Mencius) the most renowned 
disciple of Confucius. 

It is said of the Chinese that they are the most pious, rever- 
ential and formal people in the world. With them the past is not 
dead, but continues to live in the ancestors whose place of burial 
is surrounded with religious cult; it demands reverence for them 



164 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 



and tolerates no hurtful critics. The wisdom of the ancestors is 
protected against any attack as the word of the parent is against 
any opposition by the minor children. This natural disposition 
in the people is much developed and strengthened by the teachings 
of Confucius. A pupil asked him : 




SALE OF PRAYERS IN A CHINESE TEMPLE. 

" How shall the spirits be served ? '' 

Confucius replied : 

" You do not even know how to serve mankind, why should 
you know how to serve spirits ? " 

While he was dying, Tsze-lu, one of his pupils, asked Con- 
fucius if he should pray for him. The wise man met him with 
another question : 

" Would there be any sense in it ? " 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 16; 

Confucius did not die the martyr's death for his teachings, 
like Jesus and Socrates died. He was a sober man without any 
mystical views, as well as without the insatiable desire for the 
spread of enlightenment which brought the great Athenian first 
into conflict with the religious views of his countrymen and subse- 
quently before the death tribunal. His wisdom was always within 
the limits of the permissible, the practical in civic life, about like 
the philosopy of Benjamin Franklin, and where he did not agree 
with the customs and views of his fellow-citizens he took good care 
not to incite them by open opposition. When Tsze-lu suggested 
to him : 

" In the prayer for the dead it is said : ' By prayer we appeal 
to heavenly and temporal spirits.' " 

Confucius did not say that he did not believe in heavenly or 
worldly spirits, but simply replied : 

" It is long since I prayed." 

CONFUCIUS JOINS POLITICS AND ETHICS. 

Confucius conceives the quintessence of all morals, the close 
connection between politics (in the widest sense) and ethics. As 
the one principle which may guide a career he mentions : 

ki Perhaps reciprocity," in the sense of " What you don't want 
to have done to you, don't do to others." 

The quintessence of morality Confucius finds entirely in har- 
mony with modern views, in humanity. " Humanity is a love for 
humans,'' he says ; but he adds that he has never found in all his 
life a single individual that was exclusively guided by humanity. 
On the other hand, he keeps the idea of humanity free from any 
sickly charity, which is dangerous to all true civilization. He does 
not teach that one should love his euemy, should love despicable 
creatures for heaven's sake. 

When somebody asked him whether injustice should be 
requited with kindness, Confucius replied : 

" How would you requite kindness ? Wrong should be re- 
quited with justice and kindness with kindness. '' 

And it can be seen in modern nations everywhere that the 



106 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

axiom : " Do not judge that you may be judged," prevents no- 
body from prosecuting wrongdoers in the interest of society. But 
what civilized nations do in contradiction to a much misunderstood 
Bible teaching the Chinese do in accordance with the teachings of 
their national sage. Confucius even demands hatred of the bad as 
supplemental to the love of the good. " Only the humane man is 
capable to love and to hate others," he says. " The noble man 
may suffer to be deceived, but he will not be made a fool of.' ' 

PURELY POLITICAL QUESTIONS. 

In many instances Confucius treats purely political questions, 
such as good government and the relations between governing and 
governed. To the ruler he presents the high responsibility and 
the difficulty of his calling, and the servant of the ruler is admon- 
ished : 

" Do not deceive the prince, but contradict him ! " 

For Confucius the example of the ruler is the best means for 
the moral development of the people. 

" If the Prince is not avaricious his subjects will not steal, 
even if you pay them to do it," he says. And again : 

" Without confidence no people can exist." 

To him confidence is far more important than means of de- 
fence, even more so than sufficient sustenance. 

" In an orderly government poverty and inferior position are 
a disgrace ; in a disorderly government riches and high position 
are a disgrace," is another of Confucius' dictums. The quintes- 
sence of his ethics is expressed in his view of the u hiao " — the 
duty children owe their parents. He says : 

" So long as your father lives, look to his will ; after he is 
dead, look to his conduct. Whoever follows the path of his father 
for three years may be called pietous." 

These utterances and many others are authenticated, and they 
afford an idea of the personality of Confucius. A skeptical, pru- 
dent, well-mannered man, of great coolness and without any flight 
of fancy, he was just the man to become the national sage of a 
conservative, cool, more ductile than expansive people. He is the 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 167 

most complete expression of Chinaism, the classical Chinese. 
After he appeared the Chinese national spirit had no longer need 
to search for the typical man. He was found ; all that was 
required was to conserve his teachings. 

The followers of the feng-shue in the Empire number them- 
selves by the millions. They are Buddhists, Taoists, Mongolians 
and even Christians. It is to these people that the choice of a 
grave is of the greatest importance. Should the soul of the dead 
be exposed to harmful influences it will certainly endeavor to 
avenge itself and its anger will be shown in the endless disasters 
that will come upon the family. 

THE SPIRITS ON EARTH. 

Good and evil genii are eternally wandering over the surface 
of the earth and the essential work of the living is to build the 
houses, erect monuments, lay down roads, construct canals, and 
sink wells in such a way as to obstruct the flight of the hostile 
and favor that of the beneficent spirits. The knowledge of all this 
is extremely difficult and all calamities are attributed to the care- 
lessness or lack of knowledge of the professor of feng-shue, or 
spirit worship. 

There is scarcely a part of China in which mines and quarries 
have not been filled by the authorities because the inhabitants 
have complained that they have caused bad harvests by allowing 
the demons to pass by. 

" Lawsuits often occur between neighbors accusing each other 
of having made changes on their lands, turning the good spirits 
aside. A single tree planted on the right spot, or a tower raised 
on an eminence, will at times suffice to place the whole district 
under a happy conjunction with the elements. From the north 
country the bad, from the south the good spirits, and in general, 
winding streams, or gently rounded hills promote prosperity, while 
sharp turnings and steep bluffs are dangerous to the surrounding 
populations. Hence straight lines must be avoided and all the 
roofs of the buildings are curved upwards so that the evil influ- 
ences may be turned aside." 



168 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

THE RULE OF FENG-SHUE STUDY. 

According to the professors of feng-shue, or spirit-worship, it 
embraces the study of the general order of things, their numeral 
proportions, their manner, life and outward forms. When the rail- 
road engineer from Germany, or England, or Belgium, digs 
straight trenches in Chinese ground, throws bridges across the 
streams at right angles, tunnels the hills obliquely, lays down iron 
rails across the dead, the people look on with a feeling of downright 
dismay. The great opposition to railroads is due not only to the 
fear entertained by the government that foreigners may gradually 
make themselves masters of the land, but also to the traditional 
respect of the people for the earth that bears and nourishes them. 

The religious system founded by Lao-tze, while not starting 
as such, is practically now a worship of the spirits or feng-shue. 
Lao-tze, when living, sought for the absolute truth. He did not 
follow the example of Confucius aud examine the past for a model 
of conduct for the future. Regardless of good or evil spirits or of 
the shades of ancestors, he studied the first causes of things. For 
him " matter and the visible world are merely manifestations of a 
sublime, eternal, incomprehensible principle," which he calls Tao; 
that is, the "way of salvation." He held that whoever controlled 
his passions might escape after death successive transmigrations 
of his soul, and through contemplation pass directly to everlasting 
bliss. 

It was not long after his death that his priests claimed to have 
discovered immortality, even in this world, and sought the patron- 
age of Emperors by the use of elixirs and nostrums. In a short 
time magic and the original doctrine of Lao-tze were intermixed. 
The Taoist priest, like the Buddhist lamas or priests, never marry. 
They are the magicians, wizards, mediums and fortune-tellers of 
China. Many of them are astrologers. One name given them is 
Shamanists. The high priest of the order, otherwise known as 
the Heavenly Doctor, receives an annual subsidy from the Empe- 
ror, taken from the taxes of the people. He gives in exchange for 
this the amulets, holy objects and instructions on red and green 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 169 

paper, which each year are distributed by him throughout the 
Empire. 

BUDDHISM FAVORED BY A MAJORITY. 

The Buddhist religion has the favor of a majority of the popu- 
lation. It is closely assimilated to the spirit worship of the Em- 
pire. To the educated classes of China Buddhism "offered its first 
metaphysical subtleties." It gained the love of the lowly and 
wretched by admitting them to the gorgeous ceremonials and 
promising redemption for their sufferings after life. The Buddhist 
book most studied in China is known as the " Nenuphar." This 
is a collection of consolatory and loving words and promises. Of 
all the Buddhist sects in the Empire the most popular is that 
which worships Kwan-nin, the only woman included in the number 
of Buddhist disciples. She is the goddess of mercy, the friend of 
childless women, the protector of mariners threatened by shipwreck. 
She is often represented with a child in her arms and many of her 
images are precisely like those of the Madonna. 

Buddhism had its most healthy growth in China between the 
sixth and eleventh centuries. The Buddhist monks passed through 
all China and neighboring countries. They translated into Chinese 
all of fifteen hundred Sanskrit works, which now contain the most 
valuable doctrines on the history of Buddhism. During this period 
the country was covered with countless pa or pagodas. In these 
temples the ceremonies consisted of hymns, offerings, prostrations, 
processions and eternal repetitions of the syllables O, Mi, To, Fo, 
the Chinese phonetic translation of Matobha, one of the Hindu 
names of Buddha. There is no doubt that Buddhism has declined 
in China during the last five hundred years. 

But, although the people have forsaken the priests or bonzes, 
they continue their religious practices. While skepticism prevails 
among many of the literary classes the great mass of the public still 
worship their household gods and indulge in sacred pilgrimages. 
" They are not even satisfied with one, but practice all three of the 
national religions, worshiping their ancestors with Confucius, con- 
juring the genii with the Taoists, communing with the saints in 



170 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

conformity with the Buddhist doctrine." The priests of all three 
religions frequently officiate at one funeral. 

The Jewish religion was at one time in force in China. The 
Chinaman regarded the Jews as a branch of the religion of Moham- 
met, or Islam. They called the Jews the " Blue Mohammedans," 
because of the color of their rabbis' head-dress and shoes. They 
were also called by the Chinese Lehtze-kin or " cutters of veins " 
and Tau-kin-kedu or " extractors of sinews " in reference to their 
manner of killing and dressing the animals which they eat. Many 
of the Chinese Jews rise to high rank in the service of the Empire, 
but their number now comprises a few hundred living at Kai- 
fung-fu, the capital of Honan. 

THOSE WHO ARE OF MOSLEM FAITH. 

The Mohammedans in the Empire number at least 20,000,000. 
It is claimed that they form a majority of the population of Kan-su. 
The Dungans belong to their religion and the Mussulmans of 
Zungaria, Kulja and Eastern Turkestan. All the Chinese Mo- 
hammedans are known as Hwei-hwei. They call themselves Kiao- 
mun, or u religious people " in opposition to the other Chinese 
whom they regard as unbelievers. The Mongolian epithet Dungan, 
usually explained to mean " outcasts or loafers," is restricted to 
those inhabitants of the Empire who live in the extreme north and 
northwest and have no direct intercourse with their co-religionists 
of Yunnan, known as the Panthays. 

All the Chinese Mohammedans are compelled by the Manchu 
dynasty to wear the pigtail, and their women are required to con- 
form to the Chinese fashion of checking the growth of the feet. 
But these worshipers of Mohammet do not use alcoholic drinks, 
tobacco or opium and are noted for their haughty bearing. The 
religion of Mohammet is supposed to have entered the Empire 
about the seventh century after Christ. When the Koran was first 
used in Yunnan the Arabic prayers were recited in mosques which 
were constructed for that purpose. The Mohammedans have been 
the authors of several revolts against the Manchu dynasty. 

" In North China one of the most noted Mongolian revolts 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 171 

against the Manchu dynasty and the state religion of China began 
in i860 with the massacre of the Chinese of Hoachew, east of 
Singan-fu. At first the Chinese and Mongolians everywhere 
escaped to the mountains or deserts, or even allowed themselves to 
be killed without resistance. In Shensi and Kansu the work of 
destruction was carried out with pitiless fury, and here the heads 
of families were seen to slay their women and children in order 
to devote themselves entirely to the holy war. 

PEOPLE PUT TO THE SWORD. 

In the valley of the Wei not a single village remained stand- 
ing. With the exception of the Christians, all the inhabitants who 
could not escape were put to the sword ; the prisoners were burned 
alive ; old and young alike were murdered ; and the dead were 
numbered by the million. In certain districts a few solitary build- 
ings still standing excite the wonder of strangers, and but for the 
impregnable works of a few large cities, the northern and western 
provinces would have been entirely freed from their Chinese in- 
habitants. The country seemed finally lost to the Empire, when 
the lack of cohesion and a common plan of operations proved fatal 
to the Dungan rebels. 

After fifteen years of strife victory remained with those who 
commanded the best disciplined troops. The Chinese generals 
successively recovered Shensi and Kansu, and after seizing the 
military stations in the Tian-shan they were able to scatter the last 
embers of revolt in the Zungarian steepes. But although thus van- 
quished at both extremities of the Empire, the worshipers of Allah 
still constitute a power in the state, and certain writers, perhaps 
somewhat prematurely, foresee the time when they will become 
the ruling element in the extreme East." 

At the close of the thirteenth century Monte Corvino, a Roman 
Catholic priest, was bishop of Pekin and founder of many churches 
in China. In 1581 the Italian Jesuit Ruggiero reached Canton dis- 
guised as a native and he was followed the next year by the cele- 
brated Ricci who secured the favor of the Emperor by his vast 
learning and who at last became a pensioner of the Imperial court. 



172 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

Ricci made the Jesuits all powerful in China for many genera- 
tions. 

His policy and the policy of those who followed him was not 
to condemn absolutely the national rites and especially those asso- 
ciated with ancestral worship. He even tolerated the offerings of 
fruits and flowers and the sacrifices in honor of the dead. The 
Dominican friars who entered the Empire at the end of the seven- 
teenth century were not so politic and because they denounced all 
the national rites a rupture followed between them and the Jesuits. 
Since this rupture conversions have become more or less rare 
among the higher classes and mostly restricted to the poorer 
classes. 

" Infants also rescued during times of war or distress, or even 
purchased from the famine-stricken, are brought up in the Catholic 
faith, and thus are recruited the Christian communities of the 
Empire. l For a hundred francs,' says Bishop Perrocheau, ' we are 
able to regenerate at least three hundred or four hundred infants, 
of whom two-thirds go straight to heaven.' " 

PROTESTANT MISSIONS FIRST OPENED. 

The Protestant missions were first opened in 1842 after the 
treaty of Nanking and for a time were restricted to five treaty 
ports. Since i860 they have been gradually diffused throughout 
every part of the Empire, except Tibet and Eastern Turkestan. 
The missionaries of the Protestant faith have been nearly all Eng- 
lish and Americans. They have founded over forty hospitals and 
nearly six hundred schools, attended by over twelve thousand 
pupils. The conversions have been by no means commensurate 
with the amount of w T ealth which the foreign mission boards have 
poured into China for the aid of their missionaries. 

To the opium trade imposed by Great Britain on China is 
largely due the failure of the Protestant missions, the natives nat- 
urally asking themselves whether the nation poisoning them with 
its drugs is likely to improve them with its teachings, but Protest- 
ant and Catholic missions alike suffer from contact with the 
European element in the ports. The Catholic priests teach the 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 173 

faithful Latin only to prevent them from being perverted by the per- 
nicious literature of the West, while the Protestants take care not 
to teach their converts English to prevent them from seeking a 
living as interpreters in the treaty ports. 

A missionary of authority, who had spent many years in 
Japan, said just before the Boxer outbreak : 

" We have been here a long time trying to make the China- 
man fit into our religion and I for one am about discouraged. If 
we make any great headway we must try rather to make our reli- 
gion fit into the life and Condition of the Chinaman, not the 
Chinaman into it." 

IDOLS FOUND EVERYWHERE. 

Out of its mingling of Confucionism, Buddhism and Taoism, 
the Chinese people have been prolific of idols and votaries of image 
worship. Some one has written that the first of these religions 
was based upon morality, the second on idolatry, and the third on 
spirit worship, and that out of this blending has sprung the mul- 
titudinous crop of Chinese deities, who are assigned functions 
dealing with almost every interest of man. Most of these deities 
are historical characters who once lived on earth but who after- 
wards were canonized as saints. 

Literally they number millions, for each hill and mountain 
has its ruling god, and nature, the elements, the occupations of 
men, and the thoughts and desires of the people are dominated by 
these creatures of superstitious reverence. In some sections of 
the country even clods of earth are set up and worshiped by the 
farmers. In every house, save in the hovels of the poorest poor, 
just within the doorway, high up, are three pigeonholes where the 
family gods reside. In the middle one, on a tablet, are inscribed 
the words, " Heaven, earth, ruler, parent, teacher." To the left 
also inscribed, are the words, " We burn incense to the holy multi- 
tude of family gods." On the right are the ancestral tablets, 
placed in order of rank, with the oldest in the rear. The door 
gods, who were Ministers of State in the Tang dynasty, are Wei 
Tsukung and Chin Sohpao. 



174 CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 

At the present time interest most attaches to the god of war. 
He was Kwante, who figured just after the beginning of the 
Christian era. In 1856 he is said to have appeared in the heavens 
and turned the tide of battle to the imperialists, for which the 
Emperor raised him to the rank of Confucius. There is a god of 
thunder, of lightning, of the earth, sea and sky. There is a god of 
cruelty and a god of revenge ; of smallpox, of measles, and, strangely 
enough, a god of lice. This manufacture of images of worship is 
an important branch of trade. It is not art. The figures are out 
of proportion, grotesque and even hideous. 

HUNDREDS OF DEITIES. 

An image shop may have several hundred of these deities, 
ranging from three inches to ten feet in height. Across the street 
may be daubs of mud drying in the sun, out of which these gods 
are made. Wood serves as a skeleton, mud for flesh, paint for 
skin, with a silver or pewter heart. A hole is left in the back and 
into this a frog, snail, lizzard or centipede is put, and the object 
becomes a living deity. 

We know now that sixty-five years after the birth of Christ, 
under the direction of the Emperor Ming-ti, an embassy left China 
to seek a prophet whom it was said could heal the sick, cure the 
leper and teach the people how they should live. Ming-ti had 
dreamed of an incarnate god who was upon earth, and he sent his 
cavalcade, laden with gold and silver, to find him and bring him to 
the Empire. The embassy passed beyond the boundaries of the 
Empire. It came to India. There it heard of the man-God. The 
story of Buddha was told to the seekers. He had lived but he was 
dead. 

The travelers went on to Ceylon. They found the shrine of 
Buddha. They left their offerings at this shrine and returned to 
China with the new creed. Had they gone on to Palestine, fifteen 
hundred miles beyond Ceylon, they would have met with the 
teachings of Christ, but they missed the story of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. They had gone blindly to the west seeking a man of super- 
natural power. In India they found that man with no word of a 



CONFUSION OF RELIGIONS EXISTS. 175 

newer prophet beyond, so they returned to the Emperor Ming-ti 
satisfied, and Buddhism, not Christianity, became the national 
religion of China. It is possible — more than that, it is contended 
— that had Fate decreed the emhassy should pass India and come 
to Palestine, that to-day the Christian religion would be the 
worship of China instead of being the faith most opposed, most 
resisted by the people of that Empire. 

It is to be said for Christianity as compared with the state 
religions of China that it is practical, far more practical fo* the 
needs of daily life than the worship of spirits. It breathes an air 
of charity and tenderness that the educated Chinaman must recog- 
nize in time. He may never finally accept Christianity, but he 
will eventually respect it and its best works. 






CHAPTER X. 

Enormous Geographical Divisions. 

The Land of the Tibetan — Noblest Race in the World— Turkestan and Kashgarians — Mon- 
golia and the Great Wall— Manchuria and Its Influences -Desert Wastes of Central 
Asia — Influence of Siberia — China Proper Division of Provinces — Geological His 
tory — Acquiring Territory — Corporative Size. 

CHINA, with Corea and the neighboring archipelagoes, are 
enclosed by an ampitheatre of plateaus and highlands with 
a total frontier line of 6,000 miles, of which China alone 
possesses more than two-thirds. From Manchuria to Indo-China, 
the Shanyan-alin, the Dus-alin, the Khingan, the Ektag-alti, the 
Himalaya, the hills pierced by the rivers of Transgangetic India, 
form together and continue in a circle round about that portion, 
which now constitutes the Chinese Empire. The general slope of 
the Empire is toward the Pacific Ocean. From the shores of Man- 
churia to those of Cochin China, one important peninsula alone — 
that of Corea — is detached from the continental mass, while the 
land is penetrated only by one gulf deserving the name of sea — 
the Hoang-hi. 

Beyond the " Middle Kingdom/' the Chinese Empire embraces 
vast regions with a joint area more extensive than that of China 
proper. In this is included Tibet. The name Tibet is applied not 
only to the southwestern portion of the Chinese Empire, but also 
to more than half of Kashmir occupied by peoples of Tibetan origin. 
The people of Tibet do not call it Tibet any more than the people 
of China call their land China. They term it " Bod-yul," which 
literally means the " land of Bod." 

The land of Tibet forms the most massive plateau on the 
earth's surface and rises close to one of the deepest depressions in 
the interior of the dry land. Resting towards the northwest on the 
broken masses, intersected by the Ladak and Kashmir valleys, it 
spreads out gradually toward the east and southeast between the 
main continental chains of the Kuen-lun and Himalayas. These 

two mighty ranges are regarded by the people dwelling at their 
176 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS 



177 



base as " roofs of the world" and the " abode of the gods." The 
Tibetan plateau is some 14,000 or 15,000 feet above the surround- 
ing plains. 

CHARACTER OF THE PLATEAU. 

This plateau is more than half filled with closed basins, dotted 
with a few lakes or marshes. There are many intervening river 
valleys. On the eastern frontier travelers are held back by the 
rugged gorges, the ex- 
tensive forests, the ab- 
sence of population and 
supplies and finally by 
the ill-will of the 
Chinese authorities. 
During the present 
century the Tibetan 
frontier has succeeded 
better than any other 
Asiatic state in pre- 
serving the political 
isolation of the people, 
thanks chiefly to the 
relief and physical con- 
dition of the land. 
Tibet rises like a cita- 
del in the heart of Asia. 

The greater part 
of Tibet remains still 
unexplored. In the image of buddha. 

fourteenth century a Fruili monk made his way from China to 
Tibet and remained there for a short time. Jesuit priests were 
cordially received there in 1625, l6 26 anc ^ l6 6i. ^ ne Dutch 
traveler, Vande Putte, lived there several years, and his manuscript 
map is carefully preserved in a museum in Zealand. 

The Tibetan region is a holy land both for Brahmins and Budd- 
hists. The mountain ridge which connects the Himalayas with 
12 




178 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

the Gang-Dis-Ri, and through it with the whole Tibetan plateau, 
is the connecting link between the plateau and the Himalayas. To 
the northwest of it rises the Mount Kailas of the Hindus. When 
the Hindus first saw this lofty crest looking like the shape of a 
ruined pagoda, they fell prostrate, seven times raising their hands 
towards the heavens. 

They believe that in this peak is the home of Ma-ha-deo, or 
the Great God. It is the Mount Meru of the ancient Hindus. 
The Tibetan people have as great a veneration for this sacred 
mountain as the Hindus. They undertake pilgrimages to it. 
Two hundred years after Christ the first Buddhist monastery was 
built at the foot of this mountain with its four faces, " one of Gold, 
the second of Silver and the third of Rubies, and the last of Lapis- 
lazuli." 

Here, too, the Hindu legends locate four divine animals — the 
elephant, lion, cow and horse — symbols of the four great rivers — 
the Satlaj, Indus, Ganges and Tsang-bo. These great streams 
flowing in four different directions rise on the sides of this moun- 
tain within a space of not more than sixty miles in area. The 
Hindu says that the name Satlaj means " sacred waters." It rises 
in the lake Mansaraur, which is said to be u the lake formed by 
the breath of Brahma." In the Tibetan country is Lake Pang- 
Kong, a body of water 13,500 feet above the level of the sea. The 
Tsang-bo, according to one legend, flows from the mouth of a war- 
horse. It is navigable at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet above 
the level of the sea. The grandeur of the scenery is indescribable. 

THE SNOWY KINGDOM. 

All the neighors of the Tibetan call that country the " Snowy 
Kingdom." But this is due to the fact that they see only the 
white caps of the peaks and because they are snow-covered, errone- 
ously assume that the whole region is held in the chains of perpetual 
winter. In the southeast corner of Tibet the zone of perpetual 
snow begins at about 18,500 feet. So great is the dryness of the 
air in many parts of the plateau country, the doors and wooden 
pillars of the houses have to be wrapped in woolen cloths to keep 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 179 

thein from warping, and to keep the skin from chapping many 
travelers are accustomed to smear their faces with a black grease. 
Nevertheless the climate is severe. There is terrible cold with a 
deficiency of oxygen. Men and animals not accustomed to the 
country suffer from so-called mountain sickness. All the streams 
and lakes in winter are frozen down to within 7,500 feet of the sea 
level. The long-haired yaks are at times burdened with a heavy 
coating of icicles. 

There is a great dearth of fuel. Often in the daytime savage 
sand storms come destroying human life before them. Few trees 
are met with beyond the willow and poplar and some of fruit. 

CHARACTER OF THE TIBETANS. 

The people of Tibet are low-sized, with broad shoulders and 
chests ; their cheek bones are unusually prominent ; their com- 
plexion varies from a delicate white to the copper yellow of the 
shepherds. Travelers praise them for their gentleness, frank and 
manly bearing and unaffected dignity. They are fond of music 
and the dance and song. They are governed by the lamas, or 
priests. They guard their frontier from all strangers. In East 
Tibet their character is not as high as in Tibet proper. The east 
Tibetans are described as thievish and treacherous. The Tibetans 
have known civilization for a great many centuries. They are 
well acquainted with copper and iron. Reading and writing is 
quite generally understood. Books are so cheap that they are 
found in the humblest dwellings. 

Chinese women are forbidden to enter Tibet, so the Chinese 
Mandarins, soldiers and officials sent there by the Emperor to rule, 
take Tibetan wives and this is making Chinese influence stronger 
every year and greatly changing the character of the population. 
Tibet is the centre of Buddhism in the Chinese Empire. The sect 
is found there of the Yellow Caps, also that of the Red Caps. Red 
is one of the sacred colors of the cloister and the temples. The 
temples and sacred buildings of Tibet are usually of pyramidal form. 
The north front is painted green, the east red, the south yellow 
and the west remains white. The religion is reduced to a system 



180 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

of magic and the constant effort of the priests is to conjure the 
evil spirits. The favorite prayer of the people is Om Mami Padme 
Hum, usually translated : 

" O gem of the lotus ! Amen." 

The sacred words, each of which is a special virtue, are the 
first taught to the Mongolian and Tibetan children. This invoca- 
tion is met everywhere — on the walls of the houses and temples, on 
rocks and on great statues. The people wear gold, silver or metal 
amulets. They carry with them the teeth, hair or nails of canon- 
ized priests. The Korlo or prayer mills are in use. These are 
small cylinders, every revolution of which shows the all-seeing 
heavens the magic words quoted above. The idols are simple re- 
productions of other idols seen in India hundreds of years ago. 
The priests of Tibet are the knowledge givers. They operate the 
printing establishments. They publish the dictionaries, encyclo- 
pedias and books of magic. They administer justice, and having 
control of the fines and the taxes imposed upon commercial traffic 
the national wealth is in their possession. " The priests command 
and all obey. The unity of faith is absolute around each monastic 
centre." 

To convert Tibet to Christianity or any other religion it would 
be necessary to convert Tibetan priests and that once accomplished 
would open the entire central Asiatic world to the Western world. 
During the last century the Christian missionaries have failed to 
get a foothold in Tibet. Many have perished in the effort. The 
missions they erected were burned. 

POLYGAMY OFTEN PREVAILS. 

These Tibetans live on milk, butter and barley meal. They 
eat the flesh of domestic animals. Mutton is a favorite dish with 
them. They hunt with the dart, arrow and gun. Liquid blood is 
a favorite drink of a part of the people. A mixture fed to children 
consists of cheese, butter and blood. Horses are fed on flesh and 
curdled milk. 

While polyandria is practiced many wealthy Tibetans have 
several wives. Courtesy is held in high honor. When two per- 



182 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

sons meet they salute each other several times by showing the 
tongue and scratching the right ear, by exchanging white and pink 
embroidered scarfs. 

When in mourning for the dead, the men lay aside their silk 
garments, the women their jewelry. Funeral banquets are held, 
during which the houses are illuminated and bonfires burned on 
the hill tops. One of the most wonderful cities in the world is in 
Tibet — the city of Lassa, the Beautiful. 

THE RELIGIOUS METROPOLIS OF BUDDHISM. 

Lassa, the solitary; Lassa, the " Throne of God," for 1,200 
years has been the most hallowed spot in east Asia. It is the re- 
ligious metropolis of the Buddhist world in the Chinese Empire. 
When the shadow of Lassa is projected by the setting sun on the 
azure sky above all work ceases in the city of the mountain heights. 
The inhabitants gather in groups on the terraces, in the streets 
and public places, casting themselves prostrate on the ground and 
raising a muffled song of praise toward the sacred shrine. By the 
Buddhist, Lassa is regarded as the Mount of Buddha, the final place 
for his abode after his earthly travail had ended. There they wor- 
ship him who taught : 

" Live until the craze of life shall cease, and life pass into 
nameless quiet, nameless joy — the blest Nirvana, sinless, stirless 
rest." 

Lassa, with its group of neighboring cities, is the highest in- 
habited mountain region of the world. There is Tok-yalung, 16,- 
900 feet, where the atmosphere is scarcely half as dense as that on 
the surface of the ocean. Beyond isTadum, 14,000 feet, and Jangla- 
cheh, 13,850 feet. Digarchi is a little lower down, 11,730 feet. 
Above it are the houses and temples of Tashi-lumpo, or " Exalted 
Glory," residence of the Tashi-lama, Tsehu-lama, or Panchen-rim- 
bocheh — that is, the "Jewel of Intelligence." 

The walls of the holy city have a circuit of a mile and a quar- 
ter, and inclose over three hundred edifices grouped around the 
palace and sacred monuments. From 3,000 to 4,000 lamas (priests) 
occupy the monaster} 7 , whose gilded belfries and red walls tower 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 



18: 




FOLLOWING THE DEAD TO THK CEMETERY. 

above the poorer houses of the lower 

town. Then appears Nemling, cr 

" Heavenly Garden," and Gyanzeh. 

Lassa, which is next, is 11,580 feet 

in the air, and the capital of both 

Tibet and Wei. The name means 

" Throne of God," and for the Mongolians it is the morke-jot, or 

" eternal sanctuary." 



184 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

The number of priests constantly in service at Lassa is placed 
at 20,000. Vast throngs of pilgrims are always coming from all 
parts of Tibet and even from the frontiers beyond. The palace of 
Potala, within the city, and the residence of the sovereign, forms a 
group of fortifications, temples and monasteries, surmounted by 
a dome entirely covered with gilded plates and surrounded by a 
peristyle of gilded columns. The Zungarians destroyed this palace 
in the eighteenth century, but it was replaced with one of greater 
gorgeousness. 

The streets of Lassa are broad and regular, and are flanked 
by whitewashed houses of stone, brick and earth. One of the 
quarters is entirely built of the interlaced horns of sheep and cattle 
in alternating layers of various forms and colors. These horns, 
the interstices of which are filled with mortar, lend themselves to 
an endless variety of design, imparting to the houses the most 
fanatic appearance. Great feasts mark the coming of each new 
year. The monks enter the town on foot or mounted on horses, 
asses or oxen, laden with prayer books or cooking utensils. Then 
the streets and squares are covered with tents. The civil popula- 
tion retires and the priests take possession of the city. Even the 
government officials no longer have authority, and for six days the 
religious element controls all. 

WONDERFUL LAND OF CONVENTS. 

About Lassa there are thirty convents, and their wealth has 
beome enormous through the gifts of pilgrims. The convent of 
Debang, four miles from Lassa, houses 7,500 priests. Sera has 
5,000 inmates. The convent of Samayeh is enclosed by a lofty cir- 
cular wall nearly two miles in extent. The temple of Samayeh has 
walls covered with beautiful Sanskrit inscriptions, and the interior 
is filled with statues of pure gold, covered w r ith precious stones and 
costly robes. 

The father superior of this convent is popularly supposed to 
stretch his power beyond the grave, rewarding and punishing the 
souls of the dead. He is the treasurer of the Tibetan government. 
The pilgrims say the mountains are at his command and all the 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 185 

powers of the elements. His frown is like the overcasting of the 
sky and his smile the radiance of the sun at dawn. He is at once 
a father and a judge, and from his edicts there can be no appeal. 

Lassa is to the Chinese Buddhist what Rome is to the Catho- 
lic — the sanctuary of all the traditions, the history, the great lead- 
ers of the faith — the place where the sacred keys to Paradise are 
held for the use of the faithful. But the pilgrimage to Lassa is a 
matter of heroic endurance compared with that to Rome. Hun- 
dreds and thousands of miles of snowy wastes separate the homes 
of the pilgrims from the sanctuary. Killing heat of summer and 
dreadful cold of winter alternately threaten them as they press on. 
The trails are narrow, the settlements far apart. The pilgrims are 
in the plains below the peaks, Lassa above. 

When at last, after months of struggle and endurance, they 
come in sight of the sacred mount and their cries for joy ring out 
through the wild gorges, the sight is said to be one that is awe- 
inspiring. For generations white men were not permitted to wit- 
ness it and even now they are not over-cordially welcomed, save by 
chance they happen to have embraced the Buddhist faith. The 
inhabitants of the Lassa region, though, are said by travelers to be 
among the noblest in the world. Their intelligence and learning 
is great and their aspirations of the highest. When their reserve 
is once overcome they are most companionable. 

TIBET SUPPORTS A NATION OF MONKS. 

As a trade center Lassa is important. Caravans laden with 
silks, shawls, saffron and other wares leave Leh each April and 
reach Lassa the following January. These caravans make frequent 
halts at commercial fairs that are being held along the route. 
Once at Lassa they dispose of their goods and receive in return tea, 
wool, turquoise, borax and gold. Nearly all the profit of this for- 
eign trade goes to the monasteries, which, b}^ monopolies and usury 
swallow up all the savings of Tibet. Tibet supports in wealth and 
luxury a nation of monks. 

Tibet is governed by a Chinese representative of the Emperor 
and a supreme council of three high priests. Beneath them are 



186 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

sixteen Mandarins. A great many Chinese agents are located in 
the district who convey the messages of the Emperor to the 
officials. Everything connected with politics and war mnst be 
referred to Pekin. Local matters are left to the Tibetan authori- 
ties. The head of the Tibetan priesthood is known as the pope. 
He is elected by lot and holds his position nntil death. He 
receives an annual pension from Pekin. All the land of Tibet is 
held by the pope, the people being merely temporary occupants. 

Torture is resorted to. Offending persons may be condemned 
to exile, amputation of hands and feet, gouging out of the eyes and 
death. The office of judge is annually sold to the highest bidder 
in the monastery of Debang at Lassa. " When the priest, wealthy 
enough to purchase the office, presents himself with his silver ready 
to the public there is a general stampede amongst the well-to-do 
artisans who keep out of his way for the twenty-three days during 
which he is authorized to indemnify himself by the imposition of 
arbitrary fines." 

The total number of Chinese soldiers stationed in Tibet to 
uphold the power of the Emperor is about 5,000. The postal ser- 
vice is of the same character as the old-time American pony 
express. From twenty to thirty days are required to cover a dis- 
tance of eight hundred miles. The postal messengers when started 
on their route are not allowed to undress at night. To prevent this 
their clothes are sealed by a Mandarin at starting and the seal can 
only be broken by the person who is to receive the letter. 

MANY EXPLORERS ASSASSINATED. 

Chinese Turkestan is in the Tarim basin. The district has 
always possessed great importance as a highway of trade between 
eastern Asia and the Caspian basin. Marco Polo passed through 
this section on his journey across the continent. The first 
European to reach the Tarim basin in the nineteenth century was 
Adolph Schagintweit. He was assassinated at Kashgar by Prince 
Vali Khan. The English explorer Hayward was also assassinated 
after he entered the country. 

Russian travelers and explorers have been numerous in the 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 187 

region for the last forty years. Chinese Turkestan has an area of 
about 480,000 sqnare miles. It is the country of the " Rivers of 
Jade." One of these is the river of Green jade, one of Black jade 
and one of White jade. The main, route from India to Chinese 
Turkestan leads through the Sanju pass over the Kuen-lun range 
at an elevation of 16,800 feet. More than one-fourth of the popula- 
tion of Chinese Turkestan live on the Yarkand. This river is the 
rival of the Danube in length. Lake Lob in this region is the 
ancient Mediterranean, mentioned in legends in historic accounts. 
This ancient sea, now practically dried up, is known to have cov- 
ered an area of over 800,000 square miles with a maximum depth 
of 3,000 feet. 

The Gobi desert begins in this section. Its presence is 
detected by the fine particles of dust whirling in the air. The sun 
cannot be seen for some hours after dawn. When the east winds 
rage the lamps are lighted in the houses at noon. The sand 
storms destroy the crops on the cultivated lands. Vegetation is 
scant. A wild olive grows and some tarinds and poplars thrive. 
The natives have practiced irrigation and their villages are pro- 
tected by groves of walnuts. Large crops are raised of barley, 
wheat, rice, cotton and melons, wherever water can be secured. 

RIGOROUS PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMINALS. 

The legendary heroes of Chinese Turkestan are the Iranian 
heroes Rustan and Afrasiab. " They are the Charlemagnes, the 
Rolands and Arthurs of central Asia." The people are of symme- 
trical build, frank, worshipers of fire and the sun. They are called 
the Kashgarians. The Mongol type is quite common. Numerous 
Jewish families have settled in the district coming from Russian 
Turkestan. The Kashgarians are opposed to Catholic and Greek 
Christians. They regard the Protestants as Mohammedans. 
Opium is extensively used, or nasha, a mixture of hemp and 
tobacco which is strongly intoxicating. The first time a thief is 
caught stealing he is warned. The second time he is beat upon the 
soles of his feet. The third time both his hands are cut off. The 
fourth time he is beheaded. Khotan is one of the famous towns. 



188 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

The famous perfume procured from musk deer came from the hills 
surrounding this city. 

Yu, or Jade, was collected in its streams, and to this jade was 
attributed special magical virtues. " The moderate brightness of 
the yu or jade is humanity ; its perfect hardness wisdom or pru- 
dence ; its unyielding angles justice; suspended it represents 
urbanity, while its harmonious sound stands for joy, and the sub- 
stance itself for the rainbow." At the time of the birth of Christ 
Khotan was a large city. It had a garrison of 30,000 troops and 
a population of 85,000. One of its monasteries contained 3,000 
monks. In 1863, when so many border provinces of China re- 
volted, it was the first city to rebel against the Chinese. The 
manufactures are copper ware, silks, carpets and paper. The gold 
and iron mines are extensively worked. Coal and salt are found 
in large quantities. Yarkand is another large and famous city, 
having a population of 100,000. Kashgar is the birthplace of the 
hero Rustan. 

LEGEND OF THE KUKU-NOR ISLAND. 

The division of Mongolia contains the beautiful lake Kuku- 
nor or Blue Lake. This was named from its beautiful azure color, 
contrasting with the delicate white of the snows on the mountain 
peaks mirrored in its waters. This lake covers an area of 2,000 or 
2,500 square miles. In this lake is an island which legend says 
was dropped by a gigantic bird from the skies, in order to stop the 
flow of the waters of the lake from the internal depths. These 
waters threatened to submerge the world. The elevation of the 
lake is 1,000 feet above the level of the sea. The inhabitants are 
Tangutans, the Chinese and Mongolians. The Mongol is peaceful, 
the Tangut combative. The occupation of the natives is the 
breeding of yaks and sheep. Everything is paid for by so manv 
head of cattle. It is something over 2,000 years since China con- 
quered this region. Three of the principal towns — Liang-chew > 
Kan-chew and Su-chew — were founded 2,000 years ago. 

Zungaria is the open way leading from the Chinese to the 
Western world. The Russians were fully aware, from the time of 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 189 

the first invasion of Siberia, that the road to China lay between 
the Altai and the Tian-shan ranges. But this was not the way 
they first took. They sought Pekin first, and in doing so have 
suffered great delays. Nevertheless they control all the approaches 
to this route and when ready to move can do so. The Zungarians 
are a warlike people. When they had an independent sovereign, 
two hundred years ago, he is said to have commanded a million 
armed men. In 1757, attacked by the Chinese, millions of their 
people, of all ages and sexes, were put to the sword. 

In 1865, what is known as the Dungan uprising, resulted in 
the death of over a million and a half of the inhabitants. The 
Gobi desert, that is the " Sandy Deseit," of this region, lies in the 
track of the dry winds. The extent of this desert is 480,000 
square miles. The winter gales that sweep over it have frightful 
strength and the summer heat is terrific. Its altitude above the 
sea is about 4,000 feet. The soil of the desert is composed of red- 
dish sands, grass is scarce and trees are not to be found. The sands 
of the Ordos country are almost as terrifying as those of the Gobi. 
It is while passing through this Mongolian region that the ruins 
of the Great Wall are found. The building of this wall, which 
was commenced before Christ, made it the border line between 
Mongolia and China proper. 

WHERE THE MANCHUS CAME FROM. 

The Chinese have always encroached on the territory of the 
Mongols, once part of an independent Empire. Thus the old 
imperial Mongol district of Gehol, occupying some 20,000 square 
miles northeast of Pekin, has already been entirely settled by 
Chinese colonies. The name of Gehol has been changed to that 
of the Chinese name of Cheng-pe-fu. The region once called 
" Inner Mongolia," in contradistinction to the " Outer Mongolia,'' 
is already more than two-thirds Chinese. Their traders and 
peasantry have flocked in until they have created what are now 
the complete provinces of Shan-si and Pechili. Kara Korum is 
the old capital of what was once the Mongolian Empire. As early 
as 1234 A.D. this city was sought by adventurers from all parts of 



190 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

the world. Its pleasure grounds were laid out by Guillame of 
Paris. 

Chinese Manchuria is that portion of China bounded north 
and east by the Amur river and the Usuri, on the south by the 
Yellow Sea. The region is filled with many now extinct volcanoes. 
An eruption came from one of these volcanoes in 1721 and violent 
earthquakes have been more or less frequent. The province takes 
its name from a single tribe of the people once occupying the 
upland valley in the White mountains. Tai-tsu, chief of this 
tribe, subdued all of his neighbors. Then he proclaimed the per- 
fect equality of all his subjects and extended to them his tribal 
name of Manchu. 

THE GODS OF WEALTH. 

Tatsu is the Manchurian chieftain who conquered China in 
1644. The Manchus have rejected Buddha and believe in the 
wizards who practice the magic arts. As a distinct nationality the 
Manchus appear to be threatened with extinction. Most of their 
children attend Chinese schools and study Confucius. Chinese 
names indicate the location of all their cities. So ardently are the 
people given to trading that in all their homes may be found the 
images of two gods — Lao-yeh and Tsaikin — the gods of wealth. 
South Manchuria is a great agricultural region. Swine are bred 
there and wheat and barley are raised in large quantities. Cottc n 
is cultivated. The mulberry and oak are planted for the sake of 
the silk worm. The poppy grows everywhere for the opium users. 
Manchu tobacco is famous throughout the Empire. Tobacco 
smoking was unknown in China proper until 1644. The practice 
of tobacco smoking was introduced from Manchuria to Japan and 
thence to China. 

Mukden is the present capital of the Manchu district. It is 
regarded as a holy city, because it was the former residence of the 
ancestors of the reigning imperial family. It is protected by an 
earthen rampart eleven miles in circumference, within which is a 
second enclosure three miles in circumference. The streets are 
lined with shops. White men are forbidden entrance to the inner 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 191 

portion of this city under pain of death. Until 1804 the reigning 
emperors of China always made a pilgrimage once each ten years 
to Mukden. Since that time the portrait of the Emperor has been 
sent each ten years to the city, with much ceremony. 

The natural limits of China proper are quite well defined. 
On the west the Tibetan plateau is the boundary ; on the north 
the Great Wall indicates the dividing line ; on the east and south- 
east the Pacific ocean is found and on the south mountain ranges, 
marshy tracts and great gorges separate China from the country 
of the Ganges. China proper represents about one-half of the 
total area of the Empire and about one-eleventh of the whole main- 
land of Asia. Taking the division of the Empire into eighteen 
provinces, the first and most important in the north is that of 
Pechili in the basin of the Pei-ho river. Geologically there is no 
question but that the region of the Pei-ho river, whose mouth opens 
on the Gulf of Pechili, was at one time a marine basin. It is yet 
so slightly elevated above the surface of the sea that at the time 
of floods it is possible for over 6,000 square miles to be inundated. 

FUTURE MANUFACTURING CENTER OF CHINA. 

The Shantung province, or country of the " eastern hills," lies 
off the Gulf of Pechili and the Yellow Sea. This is one of the 
most populous and fertile provinces of China. Looking out over 
it from high elevations, it presents the appearance of one vast city 
set among uncountable gardens. The Hoang-ho basin contains 
the province of Kan-su, Shen r si and Honan. The ancient Grand 
Canal passes through this district. The Yellow Lands, so much 
praised by every Chinese agriculturist, are to be found here. Great 
mountain ranges also thrust their spires to the skies. Many of 
the native manufacturies of the Empire are in these provinces, and 
vast deposits of coal and iron. 

In the basin of the Yang-tze-kiang are to be found the prov- 
inces of Sechuen, Kweichew, Hupeh, Hanan, Nganwei, Kingsu, 
Kiang-si and Che-kiang. This basin embraces three-eighths of 
China proper with a population estimated at no less than 225,- 
000,000. The total length of the navigable waters in the basin of 



192 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

the Yang-tze-kiang is equal to half of the circumference of the 
globe. It is believed that the future great mercantile and manu- 
facturing centers of China will be located in the basin of this 
famous stream. Many mountain ranges are here and great deposits 
of mineral wealth. 

The city of Hankow is in this district, the chief center of the 
tea trade in China. Nankin is also here, one of the great cities of 
China, and Shanghai. The provinces of south Chekiang and 
Hokien are on the eastern slopes of the Nan-chan mountains. The 
provinces of Kwang-si and Kwangtung are in the basin of the Si- 
kiang river. Canton lies in this district upon the Pearl river. 

Contiguous provinces to the Empire which were once part of 
it and which since have been lost through the fortunes of war are 
Hong Kong, the island adjacent to the mouth of the Pearl river, 
and which has belonged to England since 1841. The island is but 
thirty-three square miles in extent. Victoria, one of the principal 
cities, is a sanitarium for English residents. The Parsees are 
settled on the island. Many Burmese and Portugese are there. 
The shipping in the harbor exceeds 6,000,000 tons annually. 
Macao is a Portugese settlement, lying over against Hong Kong 
on the opposite side of the Pearl river estuary. 

A GREAT GAMBLING RESORT. 

China has never recognized the full sovereignty of Portugal 
over this peninsula. Nevertheless, " the settlement is almost 
entirely Portugese. Macao is the great gambling and lottery city 
of the Empire." Francis Xavier, the celebrated Jesuit missionary 
who introduced the Catholic religion in Japan, died in 1552 on the 
island of Saint John near to Macao. Yunnan is the province 
which is attached to the Empire by the weakest threads. A large 
part of the province is even now politically independent of the 
Empire. Only a portion of the province lies in the Yang-tze-kiang 
basin, while the southern end fronts the Gulf of Tonquin. The 
land is a plateau with many unexplored mountain ranges. Iron 
mines and those of copper are found in all parts of the province. 
Some gold and silver is also mined. 



ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 193 

The province is the chief center of the opium industry and 
nearly one-half of the land is given up to cultivation of the poppy. 
Much of the interior of the province has never been explored. 
Many of its tribes have never been conquered by any race. They 
worship spirits. One of their practices is to place a piece of silver 
in the mouth of the dead to pay their passage over the great river 
that flows between the earth and death. A large number of the 
women are tobacco smokers and the men use opium. It is custo- 
mary of the people to say when questioned : " We are not Chinese. 
We are Yunnan people." 

THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF HAINAN. 

Hainan is an island off the province of Kwangtung and by the 
gulf of Tonquiu. The Chinese poets have compared the island to 
a hand whose " fingers play with the clouds by day and at night 
gather the stars of the Milky Way." The mountain peaks of the 
island exceed 6,000 feet in height. The island has never been 
thoroughly explored by white people, but the mountains contain 
gold, silver, copper and iron. Dense forests cover the hill-sides. 

The dominant race is the Chinese. Formosa is separated from 
the mainland by the Fokien strait. It is traversed by the Great 
Range with peaks from 8,000 to 12,000 feet in height. Earth- 
quakes are frequent on the island. The scenery is so diversified 
that the first white man who saw the island called it " Beautiful," 
which is the English for Formosa. Most of the inhabitants of the 
islands are of Malay origin. The capital is Taiwan, a modern Chi- 
nese city. As a result of the Japanese war with China, in 1894, 
Formosa was taken over by Japan , 

Geologically it is quite certain that that portion of Asia held 
by China was produced by a combination of volcanic action and 
earthquakes and that a considerable part of the eastern section of 
the Empire was once the bed of the Pacific Ocean. Two thousand 
years ago the ocean coast line was much nearer Pekin than it is at 
the present time. The eastern boundary lines appear to be rising 
and the ocean receding. As to the imperial boundaries, they have 
varied with every century of existence of the Empire. At the time 
13 



194 ENORMOUS GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 

of the birth of Christ the area of the Empire proper did not exceed 
over 500,000 square miles. Five hundred years later it exceeded a 
million miles. 

When the Mongols conquered the Chinese in the thirteenth 
century the boundaries took in over 2,000,000 square miles. From 
time to time there have been shrinkages in the area caused by 
wars, but invariably these have been overcome and the boundary 
lines pushed forward once more to include more land. The present 
area exceeding 4,000,000 square miles has been practically main- 
tained for nearly a century. In comparison with the areas of other 
great nations of the world China does not lead as the following 
table shows : 

Area of all China, 4,567,000 

" " Russia, 8,600,000 

" " United States (^SSSttSSS*") 3,602,000 

11 " Great Britain 10,161,483 

Including the Phillipines, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico, the 
United States has many more square miles of area than China. 



CHAPTER XL 
Salubrity of the Climate. 

Variations in Climatic Conditions — Quantity of Rainfall — Extremes of Cold and Heat — 
Desert Regions— General Effect upon Natives— Seasons of Drought — Cause of 
Plagues — Diseases that Prevail — Medical Science — Physical Traits — Division of Sea- 
sons — Famine Periods. 

THE latitude and longitude of China is given as extending in 
latitude from 18 degrees to 44 degrees north and of longitude 
from 98 degrees to about 125 degrees east. With these 
boundaries it is only natural to expect that the climate should vary 
in different divisions of the Empire. The climate of the Pacific 
coast region is widely different from that of the remote interior and 
even among the coast districts themselves the climate varies. Thus 
the meteorological conditions at Canton in the south are widely dif- 
ferent from those at Pekin in the north. A peculiarity of the 
climate in general is the low average of the temperature taken in 
connection with the fact that a part of the Empire is within the 
tropics, and that the latitude even in Pekin, in the extreme north, is a 
degree to the south of that of Naples. The mean annual tempera- 
ture of Canton and Macao, which are within the tropics, " is no 
higher than what is usually registered in places on the thirtieth 
parallel; while the mean annual temperature of Pekin is ten de- 
grees lower than that of Naples." During the winter season, cold 
as severe as that found in the northwestern States of the United 
States, is experienced in the northern provinces. In these same 
provinces in mid-summer the heat is oppressive. The northeast 
monsoon commences in September and continues until February. 
The average amount of rainfall is 70 inches in the extreme south. 
The southern monsoon, bringing with it the annual rains, com- 
mences in the latter part of March or the first part of April. The 
hottest months are July, August and September. 

Taken in all its aspects and avoiding the extremes of heat in 
the south and those of cold in the north, the general climatic in- 

195 



196 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

fluence of the Empire is not unheal thful. White travelers and 
white residents of the Empire find that with the same observance 
of the sanitary laws that they practice in their native lands, good 
health is easily maintained, and that there are few weather condi- 
tions which bar the white man from becoming a permanent resi- 
dent. This cannot be said of the Philippines nor of many parts of 
India. The summer heat is exhausting when faced by white men 
having severe labor to perform. The air reaches a condition of 
extreme rarefaction and the typhoons follow. 

If those portions of China now most accessible to the white 
man were less crowded and if perfect sanitary conditions prevailed 
in the country districts as well as in the cities, it would be easier 
to form a final judgment upon the climate. Many of the frightful 
plagues and ravages of endemic diseases have in the past been 
charged to climatic influences. But this is untrue. The China- 
man lives without modern sewerage improvements ; without ample 
supply of pure water ; without well-ventilated houses and in too 
many instances without pure food. These have been far more re- 
sponsible for great losses of life than the climate, which has been 
described as " a combination of the heated terms of southern Ala- 
bama and New Orleans and the Indian summers and winters of 
Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas.'' 

CLIMATES TO CHOOSE FROM. 

Some one writing of the variety of climates in the Empire 
said: " There are as many climates as there are provinces or 
dependencies. One may have what they choose by simply looking 
for if Topographically, the Empire consists of a series of islands 
and mountain ranges and a great delta plain. This plain is in the 
north-east portion of the Empire and is seven hundred miles long 
extending from Pekin southward. Its width is from one hundred 
and fifty to five hundred and fifty miles. The mountain system of 
central Asia penetrates the western provinces of the Empire and 
decreases to foot hills as the sea-coast is approached. 

In a general way there is a maintained slope from the moun- 
tain districts in the west to the central and southern provinces and 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 197 

thence to the ocean's edge. Starting with the province of Pechili 
in which is Pekin, the climate there in December, January and 
February is cold. The rivers freeze and the Gulf of Pechili is bor- 
dered with ice. The summer heat aggravated with excessive 
humidity is often quite unbearable to a foreigner until acclimated. 
In Shantung, the adjacent province to Pechili, the climate is more 
equable, the winters being less cold and the summers less hot. It 
has been remarked that in many respects the Chinese climate cor- 
responds with that of Western Europe, although the bulk of the 
land lies nearer to the equator. 

A GREAT ANNUAL RAINFALL. 

The entire coast south of the Canton, or Pearl river estuary, is 
within the tropics, " but the isothermo lines, so to say, deflect 
China proper northwards imparting to it a relatively cold climate." 
China receives a greater annual rainfall than western Europe. 
Along the Pacific coast this is rather more than forty inches. The 
seasons in the Yang-tze-kiang and Hoang-ho basins come with 
great regularity. 

In Honan the climate is so well balanced that cotton is grown 
extensively and extremely severe winters are not experienced. In 
Shen-si the winters are cold but short. In Sin-king extremes of 
heat and cold are great. The summer temperature varies from 
seventy to ninety degrees and in winter from fifty above to ten 
below. The desert regions lying to the north and west of the delta 
plain have a considerable effect upon temperatures. They give 
forth great volumes of heat in summer and powerful cold winds in 
winter. 

It cannot be said, though, that these deserts or the low plain- 
lands so frequently inundated have any particular evil effect upon 
the health and strength of the inhabitants. Medical science has 
been cultivated by the Chinese for three thousand years and iu 
many respects they have surpassed the Western world in their 
advances in this science. The Chinese physician once known is 
something to be remembered. 

The eyes that twinkle out beneath the great tortoise shell 



198 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

spectacles of the Chinese physician are the windows of a great deal 
more medical knowledge than the Celestial is given the credit of 
possessing. He is snch a peculiar, musty back-number old fellow 
— this Chinese doctor — and so many thousand years behind his 
brothers of another civilization, that you hesitate to approach him 
at all ; but with the ice once broken he consents to thaw gradually 
and tells you many interesting things. To understand the medi- 
cal knowledge possessed by the Chinese it is necessary first to 
divest the mind of the very common error that nothing ancient can 
be of use in the present century. 

The Chinese have given us many of the simple elements of 
great inventions. They had the magnetic compass, gunpowder and 
printing blocks centuries before the European civilizations ever 
dreamed of their existence or value, and the magnifying glass, that 
forerunner not only of the telescope but of thousands of the price- 
less medical and surgical articles of to-day, was practically invented 
and first used by these strange people ages before it was known 
anywhere else. Indeed, the oldest Chinese books contain specifics 
compounded of herbs and roots for the cure of burns caused in bat- 
tle by the use of this magnifying glass and the aid of the sun. 

PIONEERS IN MEDICAL DISCOVERIES. 

So it is necessary, in order to intelligently study the Chinese 
doctor and the atmosphere in which he lives and works, to divest 
the mind of all prejudice against him because of his slow, conserva- 
tive methods. To hear these people talk of what we believe to be 
wonderful modern discoveries in medicine and surgery gives one 
who has the utmost faith in the new scientific era somewhat of a 
shock. Hardly one of the very latest discoveries made by medical 
men is, in fact, a discovery at all— and our new school doctors will 
probably be interested in knowing that the theory of germs, bacter- 
iological study, and operation of trephining the skull and the " gold 
cure " for nervous diseases and drunkenness have all been known to 
and been practiced by the Chinese for many centuries. And this 
statement does not rest on the bare assertion of a Chinese doctor, 
proud of and anxious to defend his school of medicine, but it is 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 199 

proved beyond doubt by printed books that are at least six hundred 
years old. 

The " button-hole " operation, as it is termed, by which a kid- 
ney may be successfully removed from the body of a human being, 
and which created such a tremendous sensation among the medical 
fraternity, is fully described in a Chinese medical work entitled 
"The Body and Trunk of Humanity," printed in 1622. Up to 
twenty years ago there was no such thing in China as a thoroughly 
organized medical school. Instead there were what were known as 
" medical districts." The science of medicine there has always 
been very much of a family affair, the eldest son of the family for 
many generations always being the doctor. 

THE CHINESE DOCTOR A POWER. 

A physician of any standing in a Chinese district is considered 
socially and politically as great a power as the Mandarin, and this, 
strange to say, not because of any superstitious belief in his pow- 
ers, but simply because the Chinese people, ages before Europe did 
likewise, always placed a medical man upon the highest social 
plane. No gatherings, or as we term them to-day, " conventions," 
of doctors ever take place in China. The custom indeed is directly 
opposed to anything of this character. Doctors keep very much to 
themselves, and jealously guard the secrets of compounds and 
cures handed down by their fathers. 

To give an instance: In the year 1730, or thereabouts, the 
wife of the principal Mandarin of the Hoy Peng province was cured 
of a terrible eruption by an old physician residing in the neighbor- 
hood, who used an untanned sheep's hide in conjunction with 
leaves of certain trees. A direct successor to this old doctor now 
lives in the large tea port of Hankow, on the Yang-tze-kiang river 
and is visited by thousands of Chinese every year from all parts of 
the country for treatment for various skin eruptions. No one liar 
ever been able to find out what this wonderful remedy is — anc 
unless the " open door," that threatens to turn its pruning knife 
into the heart of China and lop it into a twentieth century awaken- 
ing, becomes an accomplished fact, his successors for the next 



200 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

thousand years will probably be making fortunes in the same way. 
He may not cure one-tenth of the people who go to him — but that 
makes no difference whatever to his customers. Here is simply an 
outcropping of the fatalistic tendency that the Chinese have devel- 
oped so strongly ; the doctor may not do them any good, but his 
ancestors cured the wife of the Mandarin two hundred and fifty 
years ago, and they are quite content to trust themselves to him. 

SURGERY PRACTICALLY UNKNOWN. 

In China they are about one thousand years ahead of us in 
their methods of dealing with physicians. They pay a doctor to 
keep them in good health, and families give him a regular annual 
fee. The moment any member of the group becomes sick, how- 
ever, the pay is stopped, and the money is withheld until the 
household is again free from illness. Contrary to the general 
opinion the Chinese are thoroughly healthy people. Many times 
consular reports to Washington of the plagues that occasionally 
sweep through the Orient contain surprised comment on the won- 
derful assistance that has been rendered by Chinese doctors in 
stopping their spread. 

In all the mingling of knowledge, common sense, supersti- 
tion, to be found in this interesting old character, the art of surgery 
is practically unknown, except in the two particulars already men- 
tioned — the work of trephining and the kidney operation — both of 
these, strange to say, being among our latest new world achieve- 
ments. The Chinese doctor will explain his scant knowledge of 
surgery to you in a very plausible manner. He says: 

" You see, in our country we have no great machines, no 
electric cars to mangle people, no hydraulic cranes to crush them, 
no elevators, no steam hammers. Our people are mostly a pastoral 
race, and it is very seldom that any surgical operation beyond a 
crushed finger or foot is required." 

The Chinese have the greatest aversion to cutting and the use 
of the knife for anything, no matter how serious, is always strongly 
protested against. In the last twenty years, since young Chinamen, 
whose parents have been touched with the leaven of modern civili- 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 201 

zation, have been going abroad to American and European schools, 
some slight knowledge of our modern methods has been carried 
back to that country, but these young men, although they make a 
gallant fight for new theories and principles, have a great deal of 
uphill work. 

Indeed, in the interest of science they sometimes, in their 
anxiety and zeal, overstep the mark, and take such steps to prove 
their theories as would even shock the sensibilities of a modern 
student here at home. They bribe the guards in convict prisons 
to look after a certain condemned prisoner for them, and for a 
small money consideration jail officials will leave the bodies so 
selected lying on the ground after the execution. When they 
return some hours later to cremate them they are, of course, gone, 
and everybody is supposed to be in dense ignorance of what this 
disappearance means. When a body is obtained in this way there 
is a general jubilation among the young medical men who have 
studied in foreign lands, and they cut and dissect to their heart's 
content, being looked upon as degenerates by any of the popula- 
tion who happen to know of what is going on. 

Then again these students occasionally, in their search after 
knowledge, bribe jailers to give condemned prisoners various kinds 
of poisons in theii food, and just before execution to paint black 
marks on the bodies so that it can be readily seen which subjects 
have been given the various poisons. Then the bodies are cut up 
and the different effects noted for the good of future generations. 

TREPHINING NINETEEN HUNDRED YEARS OLD. 

For over one thousand years — and this is something to which 
Chinese doctors point with pride in discussing our so-called bacte- 
riological discoveries — all pills that have been given to Chinese 
patients have been encased in wax tightly sealed, and furthermore, 
the printed instructions with these pills order the patient to break 
the wax with his finger nail and immediately swallow the contents 
without allowing them to touch even the fingers before they reach 
the tongue. Concerning the trephining operation, which, by the 
way, is also illustrated in one of the oldest Chinese medical works, 



202 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

it is a well authenticated fact that nearly 1,900 years ago a Chinese 
doctor was beheaded, by the Emperor Quong Wing, because he 
dared to suggest this form of remedy for the Emperor's Prime 
Minister, who was suffering, as the Chinese books term it, from 
" many burdens on the head bone," otherwise depression of the 
skull. 

These old-fashioned people tell us, too, that appendicitis has 
been thoroughly understood for hundreds of years by members of 
their professien, and even to-day they guarantee to cure white 
people living in the cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai of appen- 
dicitis without the use of the knife. 

HOW CHINESE DIAGNOSE DISEASE. 

The book of instructions, from which a Chinese physician 
studies, shows how great a dependence he is instructed to place on 
the appearance of the face in diagnosing disease, and indeed he 
has brought this study to something of an exact science. Part of 
the instructions to a budding doctor read as follows : 

" Look at the head — look at the eyes — look at teeth and 
mouth ; ask in courteous manner for please put out the tongue ; 
stand away from your patient and look again at everything ; then 
feel pulse, how it beats. If the beat of the pulse should tell you 
the same things as the face tells, then you can know what sickness 
has fallen upon the patient.' ' 

Much of the herb treatment is conducted on homeopathic 
principles. An old saying among Chinese physicians is : 

u It is not the strong key that opens the door, but the right 
one." 

The plague comes to China as often as it does to India. Sea- 
sons of drouth produce famine. The people become emaciated 
and ill. Their bodies are in fit condition for the ravages of an 
epidemic. We now call the plague which infests China, India and 
the Philippines bubonic. Bubonic means a disease which produces 
a swelling in the groin and inflammatory swellings of a lymphatic 
gland. As a breeding ground for this plague China is favorable, 
because of the density of the population and the unsanitary condi- 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 203 

tions prevailing in the cities and towns. Where the people are 
packed into small spaces like sardines, where they do not have the 
proper food or shelter, and live nnder conditions that know neither 
hygiene nor sanitation, it is not strange that these epidemics 
break out. 

The result of such living is a great accumulation of unspeak- 
able filth and an inexhaustible collection of all the disease germs 
under the sun. The climate, especially in the southern part of 
the Empire, is favorable to the development of disease germs after 
they are once created. The natives carry these disease germs about 
with them and they are spread through the length and breadth of 
the land. The bubonic plague, which ravages the natives most 
severely, comes with an attack of cold sweat and severe vomiting. 
The glands of the body swell up enormously and become hard. 
Death usually follows twenty-four or forty-eight hours after the 
outbreak of the disease, unless there is skilled medical attendance 
all the time. 

RATS SPREAD THE PLAGUE. 

It is recognized that rats play an important part in the spread 
of disease in sea ports and from port to port. An Australian phy- 
sician has explained how the rats carry the plague. He asserts 
that the rats may first have the plague and communicate it to men. 
He cites an instance of a number of dead rats found one morning 
in a cotton factory. They were removed by twenty coolies or 
workmen. Within the three following days about half of these 
coolies fell sick with the plague. Those who had not touched the 
rats were not affected. 

The coachman of an English family living in the Orient found 
a dead rat in a stable and removed it. Three days later he fell 
sick with the plague and died within a few hours, no other person 
being affected. Many persons, however, have caught the plague 
without handling rats, and many persons have handled plague rats 
without catching the plague. This physician has explained this 
by suggesting that the infection is carried by the fleas, natural to 
the rat. Perfectly healthy rats harbor few fleas and are expert in 



204 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

removing them. But fleas are abundant on sick rats. As a rule 

after a rat has been dead twenty hours the fleas leave it. In this 

way the Australian accounts for the fact that a plague rat may be 

handled with impunity some hours after death. If the fleas from 

the dead rat reach another rat, or a human being, they may inoc- 

culate the vacilli they acquired by injecting the blood of their 

former host. 

The manner in which the famine, drouth, plague and cholera 

have afflicted China constitutes one of the most dreadful calamities 

known to history. The people when weakened by famine have no 

power to resist the diseases which attack them. The water supply 

of the country depends almost entirely upon natural sources. 

When the rains do not come they dry up, and then the frightful 

sufferings of the people begins. While, as has been noted, the 

medical science of the Empire has, in some respects, passed that of 

the Western world, there is no doubt that it has utterly failed to 

teach the people how to care for themselves in the congested areas 

or to induce the government to create a sewerage system to destroy 

stagnant pools of water and to provide the houses with modern 

sanitary appliances. The great prevalence of plague diseases in 

China is not due so much to the climate as to the unwholesome 

and unnatural conditions under which the poorer class of people 

live. 

SACRED TREE OE DONGAIR. 

The priesthood makes some effort to study the causes of disease 
and to provide cures for the plagues. But so much superstition is 
mixed in with the common sense of their study that not intended 
results are often produced. At the city of Dongair in the Hoang-ho 
basin, a university was maintained for a considerable time in which 
were 4,000 priests. The studies at this university were the occult 
sciences, ceremony, prayer and the art of healing the four hundred 
and forty ailments of mankind. 

One of the remedies for the cure of these ailments was the 
foliage of a sacred tree, a species of elder, growing in front of 
the great temple of Dongair, every leaf of which was said to bear a 
representation of Buddha and various characteristics of the sacred 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 205 

works. One professor who persistently made inquiry as to these 
miraculous leaves was shown one on which had been placed the 
rude outlines of a figure of Buddha. How many diseases the 
leaves ever cured there is no record of. 

ELEMENTS PLAY HAVOC. 

The elements occasionally play almost as much havoc with 
the population as the plagues. For instance a boat in the port of 
U-chang was struck by lightning in 1850. The fire which followed 
destroyed seven hundred large junks and thousands of small boats. 
By fire or drowning 50,000 people lost their lives. For more than 
two years afterwards prayers were constantly offered in the temples 
to appease the wrath of the spirits who had hurled this bolt of 
lightning upon the ship in U-chang harbor. Siang-tau, the chief 
city in the province of Hunan, is the great medical headquarters 
of China. It is the chief center of the trade in medicines and a 
thousand and one kinds of drugs used in China. 

Here all the roots, herbs and pills and other nostrums de- 
manded by the people, whether they understand their use or not, 
are put up. A disturbance much feared by the natives and having 
its origin in the influence of the moon upon the waters is the agra. 
This is experienced in Chekiang bay where the sea has encroached 
upon the shore. This agra is a great wave which advances from 
the sea with a velocity of over thirty feet per second constantly in- 
creasing in size and producing a din like peals of thunder. Although 
the cultivated lands and neighboring islands are protected by dikes, 
these waves, which come daily, break over them and do incalculable 
damage. From 1736 to 1796 the hydraulic works along the Hen- 
chew, noted on account of these waves, cost over $10,000,000. 

In south China, or what is known as the Sikiang basin, the 
torrid and temperate zones are intermingled. The monsoons alter- 
nate making the climate of Canton less even than that of Calcutta 
and other cities situated on the same parallel. " During the moist 
summer months the southern provinces are as hot as India cities 
equally distant from the equator and the temperature falls rapidly 
in winter, when the dry northeast polar winds sweep down between 



206 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

the parallel mountain ranges running mainly northeast and south- 
west. Rain seldom falls in China when the nights are cold and 
often frosty. 

" At the same time the regular alternation of moist summer and 
dry winter winds is occasionally disturbed by atmospheric currents 
deflected in various directions by the relief and contour of the sea- 
board. This southwest monsoon becomes at Canton a southeast- 
erly gale and the lofty Mount La-tao is daily exposed to fierce 
storms for months together. Hong Kong is within the range of 
the typhoons which sweep the Chinese waters. One of these terri- 
ble storms in 1874 blew down over a thousand houses, wrecked 
thirty-three large vessels with hundreds of junks and destroyed 
the lives of 7,000 people." 

GREAT RAINFALL IN WINTER. 

In the province of Yannan it is said that every climate known 
to man may be experienced. Formosa is of volcanic origin. The 
climate of the tropics prevails on the coast line while that of the 
temperate zone moves in the hills and mountains. There is a 
regular succession of monsoons, the winds blowing in summer 
from the Malay archipelago and in winter from Japan. A great 
rainfall occurs in the winter when it reaches as high as 120 inches. 
The typhoon to which such frequent reference is made in all 
Oriental literature is a storm somewhat approaching the American 
cyclone in nature. The very word itself has undergone innumer- 
able transformations. In 1567, as used in England, the word was 
" touffon." In 1610 it was " tuffon." In 1680 it had become " tuf- 
foon.'' In the Persian it is " tufon," in the Chinese it is " t'ai- 
feng " meaning great wind spirits. In Formosa the word takes 
the form of " tai-fung." Other Chinese names given to the typhoon 
are — pao-feng (meaning fierce wind), kiu-feng (meaning cyclone 
wind). 

The typhoon is a violent hurricane common to the Chinese 
seas, occurring principally during the months of July, August, 
September and October. They are prolonged cyclonic storms of 
great intensity and corresponding in every respect with the West 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 207 

Indian hurricane. The monsoon is a wind occurring in the alter- 
nation of the trade winds off the Chinese coast. During the half- 
year from April to October regular northeast trade winds are 
reversed and blow a steady gale from the southwest. In some 
places the change of the monsoons is attended with calms, in China 
with storms and much rain. 

The four seasons do not vary much in the northern part of 
the Empire from those in the temperate zone of the Western hem- 
isphere. The winters are between four and five months duration, 
commencing, as a rule, during the latter part of October. Spring 
opens abruptly and is short. The summer season is well advanced 
in June and continues into September, after which there is a short 
fall usually accompanied by much rain. In the southern part of 
the Empire the seasons correspond with those of other tropical 
regions, there being long periods of rain and short periods of 
excessive tropical heat. In the mountainous regions, both north 
and south, above an elevation of 8,000 feet, the snow and ice con- 
ditions are practically those of the North and South American 
ranges. 

The famine periods have not been so terrible in China as in 
India. 

INUNDATIONS CAUSE FAMINE. 

Drouth has not been so common to the Empire as inundations 
and this, " or overflows of rivers have been the chief factors in pro- 
ducing food scarcity." For so thickly a populated country to have 
five or six thousand square miles of crop producing land overflowed 
means famine for practically all the population that was sustained 
by that land. The lesser inundations work just as great a hard- 
ship on the people affected. There is no record in China of any 
famine period having existed a year and a half in length, while 
some of the famine periods of India have lasted for more than three 
years. 

Despite the unhealthy character of his surroundings the aver- 
age Chinaman is not a sickly person. He is quite liable to con- 
sumption if he exposes himself, but otherwise, living in a healthy 
manner, he is about as strong as the average peasant of Europe or 



208 SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 

laboring man of America. He is accustomed to work out doors. 
He is taught the value of manual labor from the moment that he 
leaves his mother's skirts. In large sea ports he quickly adapts 
himself to the handling of great packages and boxes and rarely 
physically breaks down or displays indolent traits. Taken all in 
all, he may be described as a wiry and enduring physical nature. 
His body adapts itself to varying surroundings with greater ease 
than does that of other nationalities. 

In America it has been found that in arduous railroad work, 
such as building roadbeds or track laying, the Chinaman is fully 
as strong and active as the American, the Irishman, or the Ger- 
man. He also eats less and is willing to work for less pay, two 
facts which went a long way toward aiding the passage of the 
Chinese Exclusion Act. 

Rounsevelle Wildman, United States consul at Hong Kong, in 

his book, " China's Open Door," says : 

CHINESE LACK NERVES. 

"The Chinese sleep when they have nothing else to do, and 
they sleep the sleep of the just where an European would not be 
able to get a nap. They can sleep or work in any position for 
hours at a time. A nervous Chinaman I have never seen. An 
exhibition of nerves among either gender is unknown. The China- 
man is never known to take exercise for the sake of exercise. My 
shroff, or cashier, Ah Choy, has been sitting, bent over a little desk, 
for thirty years, making out consular invoices. He handles columns 
of figures running up into the millions on his abacus, making the 
most delicate calculations, while a jabbering, pushing mob of coolie 
runners crowds his elbows. He works calmly on, day after day, 
in the same cramped position, on the same uncomfortable bamboo 
stool, unconscious of his surroundings, never losing his temper and 
seldom making a mistake. I know he never took a walk for any 
purpose other than to save chair hire, and yet in the four years of 
my term of office he has never been away from the consulate for a 
day on account of sickness. It is the absence of nerves which 
enables the Chinese to endure pain as well as toil. This absence 



SALUBRITY OF THE CLIMATE. 209 

of nerves and ability to suffer is a God-given gift, and makes the 
Chinese equal to an existence which would blot out the European 
civilization in two generations." 

The Chinaman, as a school master, can teach twelve hours a 
day ; he recuperates on four hours sleep ; to him indigestion is 
practically unknown. These qualities, together with his lack of 
" nerves," fit him for the modern industrial struggle. The fact 
that children and aged can swarm in spite of their ignorance of the 
laws of hygiene, and of the poor and insufficient food on which 
they live, is evidence of their remarkable vitality. The Chinaman 
cannot understand why Westerners indulge in competitive sports 
without pay. He prefers to fly kites and only practices archery or 
lifting of weights preparatory to military examinations. Only one 
danger besets such a physique as a Chinaman possesses and that 
is opium. 

In the sections of China which often suffer from long drouths, 
the people resort to various rites and ceremonies to induce a fall of 
rain. Images of certain gods supposed to have power over the 
elements are worshiped with curious rites. When a god fails to 
produce rain as requested by the people he is taken to broil in the 
hot sun until he does his duty. A bunch of willows is sometimes 
placed in the hand of the god, as the willow is sensitive to the least 
moisture. Foreigners carrying umbrellas have been mobbed as 
the direct cause of the drouth. These latter Chinese are followers 
of feng-shue or spirit worship. The umbrella disturbs the feng- 
shue (spirit) favorable to rain and thus causes a drouth. It is 
plain to see how the simplest Western custom may cause resent- 
ment and disturbance on the part of the Chinese, his mind being 
so permeated with superstition. 
14 



CHAPTER XII. 

Marvellous Flora and Fauna. 

Luxuriance of Flowers and Foliage— The Tiger is Lord— Prevalence of the Wild Boar— The 
Hardy Yabagre — The Yaks of Tibet — Bamboo for Building— Evergreens Especially 
Numerous — The Chinese Rat — How it Brings the Plague — The Value of the Horse 
— Passion for Flowers. 

THE flora of China is extremely rich and has a mixture of both 
the Indian and European types. The sugar cane and potato 

grow on the same land in the southern provinces while in the 
forests nearby the oak and bamboo flourish side by side. A luxur- 
iance of flowery shrubs has given to the Empire the title of the 
" Flowery Land " or " Flowery Kingdom." Camellias, azalea, jes- 
samine and scores of other exquisite plants come from this Empire 
to adorn Western homes and conservatories. 

In the Tibetan land, which is regarded by zoologists as a prin- 
cipal center of evolution as regards animal life, there is a special 
fauna in which there are rich varieties of the ass, yak, sheep, ante- 
lope, gazelle and wild goat. Nain-Singh wrote that he met with 
herds containing 2,000 antelopes, "which in the distance looked 
like regiments of soldiers with their sharp horns glittering like 
bayonets in the sun." Yaks are often found on the Tibetan pla- 
teau at an elevation of 19,800 feet and the tarbagan marmots are 
found burrowing in the soil at an elevation of 17,900 feet. 

The game of the region is preyed upon by foxes, jackals, wild 
dogs and the white wolf. White bears, resembling those of the 
polar regions, freely attack the shepherd's flocks and ravage them. 
The panther is met with in east Tibet and the buffalo, mink, 
squirrel, bear and a species of wild boar. Birds, though, are said 
to be rare, although a specie of lark has been met at an elevation 
of 15,000 feet and others at over 18,000 feet. No birds sing in 
Tibet except the birds of passage flying in the night. The eagle, 
vulture and raven are found on the heights and the pheasant in the 
forests. The few lakes on the plateau are stocked with fish. The 

210 



Marvellous flora and fauna. 211 

extreme limit of fish in the Alps is given as 7,100 feet elevation but 
at an elevation of 14,000 feet in Tibet salmon were found spawning. 

THE YAK OF TIBET. 

The Yak of Tibet has been crossed with the zebu cow resulting 
in the dzo. The wild yak is always black. He is the general 
beast of burden in Tibet, although sheep are used on the high ele- 
vations. The most valuable domestic animal is the goat whose soft 
hair commands rare prices for the manufacture of the cashmere 
shawl. Dogs are used only in the home and as collies. 

In the Turkestan country the tiger is lord and is followed by 
the panther, the lynx, wolf, fox and otter. Here in Turkestan is 
the famous Lake Lob where millions of birds of passage rest on 
their long flight between southern Asia and Siberia. It was in the 
vicinity of Lake Lob that Brjevalsky saw a wild camel. The 
existence of such an animal had been doubted for years by most 
naturalists, although frequently mentioned in the Chinese chroni- 
cles and spoken of to travelers by the natives of Turkestan and 
Mongolia. Now it is known that the wild camel inhabits the Cum- 
tag deserts and is to be found in the Altui-tagh uplands having for 
company the yak and wild ass. These animals are extremely wary 
and scent the hunters from a long distance. In this same Turkestan 
region the plains are barren, but a wild olive grows, tamarinds and 
poplars. The hamlets are surrounded by groves of walnuts and 
hundreds of gardens have their mulberry plots. The pear, apple, 
peach, apricot and olive grow under excellent cultivation. 

There was a time in the history of China proper when the 
rhinoceros, elephant and tapir were prevalent throughout the 
Empire, but they are now extinct. How long it is since they 
were exterminated no record shows. Monkeys are found in the 
neighborhood of Pekin. The tiger and panther rule the districts 
that are not thickly populated, and strike terror to the hearts of 
the inhabitants. The lizard, snake, salamander and turtle found 
in the Empire are of a variety unknown in Europe. The fresh 
water fish differ also from those of Europe, but in many respects 
resemble those of North America. 



212 MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

The Kashgarians, or the people of the Tarim basin, have 
developed irrigation works so successfully that they have a culti- 
vated flora of great value. Groves of walnuts are reared. The 
pear, apple, peach and olive are found in nearly all the orchards. 
Watermelons are raised in great profusion, and the rich citron. 
In this same district the wild boar and Chinese hare are found. 
The groves by the river banks are infested by the tiger, panther, 
lynx. The wolf is also met with, the fox and the otter. On the 
Tarim plains the antelope, fully as alert and beautiful as that of 
North America, is found. 

In Chinese Manchuria the tiger is called " lord." He frequently 
attacks the inhabitants, even in the streets of their villages, carry 
ing them away after they are struck down. Great packs of wolves 
sweep across the plains, devouring the flocks of sheep and attack- 
ing the shepherds. The squirrel and the sable are hunted for 
their furs, which are frequently used by the natives as a head 
dress. The wild boar is hunted by the nobility, who form large 
parties and often spend several weeks in the wilds searching for 
game. Large flocks of ravens visit the Manchurian villages and 
are daily supplied with food. The Manchus believe that the spirits 
of their ancestors are within the birds and that they must be 
kindly treated. 

SALMON SKINS WORN. 

In the Zungari the salmon are so large and plentiful that 
their skins are used for summer attire. These are elaborately em- 
broidered by the women before being worn. Owing to their custom 
of wearing these fish skins these people are sometimes called 
Yupi-tatze, or fish skin people. 

The southern part of Manchuria has an entirely temperate 
climate joined to a fertile soil. The natives successfully breed 
swine and cultivate wheat, barley, maize, with great success. They 
produce in their fields a yellow pea. This contains sweet oil. The 
Manchus extract this oil and make of it a sweet candy. What is 
left of the pea is exported to China for fertilizing purposes. Indigo 
is raised in this region. It is also the locality where a brandy is 




CHEMULPO, COREA, ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL PORTS OF ENTRY 




L 



GREAT SALT BEDS WORKED BY THE NATIVES, NEAR MOKHOA, COREA 



MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 213 

distilled from sorgho. The men and women drink this brandy to 
the " forgetfnlness of good and evil," as they put it. 

The evergreens are nnmerons in many of the provinces, and 
are worshiped by the Orientals just as the Pagans of western 
Europe worshiped the ever-living tree in their early history. The 
bamboo is used in the construction of the lighter buildings, espe- 
cially those for summer use. The black and green dragon has 
always been given an important place in Chinese history, 
although there is no one who has claimed to have seen this won- 
derful animal. When the great inundations or floods from the 
rivers come, the Chinaman says that the black and green dragon, 
who lives in a great cave in the bowels of the earth, is angry with 
the people on earth and is stirring himself, his actions causing the 
water to leave natural channels and pour over the fields and into 
homes. The Chinaman hastens to propitiate it by offerings, per- 
fumes, candies and flowers placed in the temples of worship. 

THE BLACK AND GREEN DRAGON. 

When the water begins to subside, then the people know that 
the black and green dragon is no longer angry with them and that 
they may return to their work in peace. Parks or sacred groves 
are maintained by the government in many accessible portions of 
the Empire. The foreigners are excluded from these as a rule, but 
those who have succeeded in entering have found many rare ani- 
mals within their confines, and many exquisite flowers and beauti- 
ful trees unknown to the West. Armand David found in the park 
of Nanhitze a species of tree entirely unknown to Europe. Nearby 
was also discovered a curious specie of monkey, not until then 
known to the Western world. 

The flowers cultivated in these parks have a richness in bloom, 
a peculiarity in coloring, which Western gardeners have as yet 
been unable to explain. It may be that the Chinese gardener is 
more careful in this work of cultivation, or that he possesses secrets 
not yet mastered by the Westerners. But he is given the credit of 
producing flower gardens which are not matched anywhere else in 
the world. 



214 MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

So many forests have been cut down in the Empire and so few 
new trees planted that a great alteration in the rainfall has taken 
place. The destruction of the forests has taken away from their 
areas needed moisture, and has driven the rain to other localities 
where not so much was needed. Hence many floods in populous 
districts that might have been avoided if the destruction of the 
forests had not been so ruthless. This experience is not that of 
China alone. In the Northwest of the United States, where the 
forests have been cut down with an unspariug hand, similar results 
have been obtained. On the Shantung peninsula the forests have 
been so completely destroyed and the population become so dense 
that not only have the wild animals disappeared but there is little 
room for the care of live stock. 

All space is given up to either the cities and homes or to the 
gardens which stretch away as far as the eye can reach. To the 
south of the deep valley of the Wei-ho river rise the Tsing-ling, 
or Blue Mountains. Here on one slope of this range grows the 
palm ; on the other the catalpa, magnolia, spruce and oak are 
naturally mingled. The red birch is found there also, and far up 
the heights climb the chamois, antelope, and hardy species of 
monkey and the hill ox. Native hunters have the same feeling 
toward this ox that the Tibetan has for the yak. It is a sacred 
beast and must not be killed. 

GOLDFISH AND CHICKEN. 

It was the Chinese who learned how to produce goldfish by 
propagation from a variety of carp, originally somber of hue, and 
to them is also attributed the development of the modern farmyard 
chicken, whose domestication in the Flowery Kingdom dates back 
to the earliest dawn of history. The early ancestor of the chicken 
was a jungle fowl, well known to science to-day. It strikingly 
resembles the modern game chicken, and the development from it 
of the various breeds of poultry now recognized may be fairly con- 
sidered one of the most extraordinar}^ feats of human ingenuity — 
an achievement in which man has practically assumed the part of 
a creator. 



MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 215 

At Liang-fang, which is just half way between Pekin and 
Tien-Tsin, is the royal hunting preserve, lying south of the capi- 
tal. This park covers about one hundred square miles and con- 
tains great numbers of a peculiar breed of semi-domesticated deer. 
These deer, called by the Chinese the mule deer, are hornless, of 
very large size, and have fat, heavy tails like the Chinese sheep. 
According to the Ancient Book of Rites, it was the duty of the 
Emperor and his court to indulge in the pleasures of the chase 
whenever the affairs of government gave them leisure. The royal 
hunt was regarded as a military exercise, and the famous decoration 
of the peacock feathers was originally granted to those members of 
the royal suite who succeeded in bringing down a stag. Most Chi- 
nese sovereigns have been ardent sportsmen, but as the throne has 
been occupied by minors for the past thirty-five years, the game 
preserves have been neglected. 

A SPARSE VEGETATION. 

The elevation of the tablelands west of the province of Kham, 
in south-eastern Tibet, is too great for the development of trees, 
although the lamas, or priests, have succeeded in growing poplars 
about the monastery of Mangnang, in the province of Nari, at an 
elevation of 13,790 feet. In sheltered depressions the willow and 
a few fruit trees are to be found, but these are few and their growth 
is scant. They are not the hardy tree that grows at lower eleva- 
tions. Shrubs do not attain their full growth, scarcely exceeding 
six feet in height. In the Ombo basin, watered by Lake Dangra- 
yum, grass grows freely. 

In the colder uplands, still inhabited by the Tibetans, cereals 
seldom ripen, and the people live on the milk and flesh of their 
herds. The south-eastern valleys, less elevated and well watered, 
are covered with dense forests. The principal tree found here is 
the prickly holm. It is large in size, and not very high. In the 
size of its stem it is comparable to the pine, though far exceeding 
it in its rich and abundant foliage. 

Along the watercourses in Turkestan the poplar grows exten- 
sively. It is of the specie Populus diversifolia, and as its botanic; 1 



216 MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

name indicates, presents a great variety in the form and size of its 
leaves. It grows rapidly and produces a light soft wood. Where 
the shade of these poplars strike the ground it is bare and usually 
covered with a grey sand. Most of the traffic of Turkestan is car- 
ried on by means of horses of large size, imported from northern 
China, while the small, hardy ana vigorous breed used as mounts 
come chiefly from the southern Tian-shan valleys. 

The yak is imported only for the shambles of the cities. 
Sheep and goats are raised on the slopes of the Tian-shan and 
Pamir mountains by the Kirghiz nomads. They are of the same 
specie as those raised in Tibet and are equally noted for their 
fleece. In northern China the trees and shrubs differ little from 
those of Europe. This is particularly notable in Chinese Manchu- 
ria. Fruit trees are grown about the houses and garden patches 
containing cereals, vegetables and other cultivated plants are 
found, and give the country a European aspect. 

HUNTING, A SACRED PURSUIT. 

Manchuria has been and is to-day a famous hunting ground. 
The attacks of wild beasts are much less dreaded than formerly, 
but the chase is still considered a sacred pursuit to be indulged in 
by all. Singing birds are met everywhere, and closely resemble 
those of Western Europe. The streams abound with fish and in 
many instances whole communities live almost exclusively on a fish 
diet. The bamboo is used for other purposes in China than that 
of building. The young sprouts are used for food and are regarded 
as one of the choice delicacies. The sacred bamboo, a handsome 
evergreen shrub, bearing red berries is extensively cultivated, and 
is used for decoration. 

The forests of China are composed of a greater variety of trees 
than those of Europe, and are more tropical in character. Even 
the evergreen is represented by a greater variety than those of 
North America. The laurel is a characteristic feature of a Chinese 
landscape. The sycamore, ash, linden and maple are of the same 
specie as the European trees. Unlike Manchuria, the wild animals 
of China proper have become rare in cultivated districts and hunt- 



MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 217 

ing is not generally indulged in. In tlie less populous districts, 
however, wild animals abound. The birds of China represent seven 
hundred and sixty-four different species, one hundred and forty-six 
of these are European, while sixty are American. 

^he Ta-Kiang, or " Great River," presents some of its grand- 
est scenery between the provinces of Sechien and Hupeh. Below 
Shipuchai, or " House of the Precious Stone," a Buddhist temple, 
the stream enters a gorge, whose vertical walls are over six hun- 
dred and fifty feet high. At places the channel is narrow and as 
most of these fissures run east and west the sun's rays seldom pen- 
etrates their depths. These recesses are covered with ferns and 
other vegetable growths, common in moist, shady places. Forests 
of conifers are found on their summits. In the lakes of eastern 
China the water-fowl and schools of porpoises are found, while 
numerous leafy islets break the monotony of their grey waters. 
Bamboo, trees and grass attain a luxuriant growth on their banks 
and the surrounding territory. 

MARVELLOUS VEGETATION. 

To the west of these lakes, the towns of Litang and Mupin, 
experience daily showers throughout the summer brought about by 
the quantity of moisture received by the West Sechuen and Tibeto- 
Chinese frontier ranges under the form of rain and snow, and the 
fact that they are exposed to the influence of the moist winds, there 
being no higher elevations between them and the Bay of Bengal. 
Here vegetation is marvellously luxuriant, particularly in sheltered 
valleys. The slopes of the higher valleys are covered for three 
months with great pastures. These disappear during the long 
winters beneath the snow. Lower down is a great variety of forest 
trees, some of which acquire proportions elsewhere unknown. 

The most conspicuous of these is a yew which rivals the finest 
European firs in height. Rhododendrons acquire the dimensions 
of trees, and azaleas grow to a height of eighteen or twenty feet. 
Ferns, shrubs, and trees find a footing on the almost vertical 
scarps, covering the rocky slopes with a mass of flowers and foli- 
age. The villages in the valleys of the streams, which flow to the 



218 MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

Min river, in the central part of the province of Sechuen, are sur- 
rounded by orchards of fruit trees. Bamboo is found at an eleva- 
tion of five thousand feet. 

SILK WORM REVERED. 

In western Sechuen in the Batang country, the vine and mul- 
berry flourish at a height of no less than 8,500 feet. Were it not 
for the fact that the Buddhists of Tibetan regard the destruction of 
the silkworm as a mortal sin, sericulture, or the breeding and treat- 
ment of silkworms, might be introduced here. The wild animals 
of this region, which were of the same species as those of Tibet, 
have disappeared from the greater part of the districts colonized by 
the Chinese. The highlands abound in various species of ante- 
lope, the musk deer and mountain sheep. The horns of the latter 
two are valuable and sold for large sums. The wild yak is fre- 
quently met with near the grazing grounds of the domestic species. 

The upland forests are inhabited by a takin, a variety of the 
ox. This animal is also found in the Eastern Himalayas. The 
white bear of Khachi is found in the Mupin country and on the 
neighboring plateaus. A few tropical animals have been met on 
these highlands. Among these are the flying squirrel and two 
species of ape. One of these species, the kintsin-hew, is nearly as 
large as the apes of the Eastern Archipelago. Its face is short, 
bluish-green in color, its nose is upturned, and its head attests a 
remarkable degree of intelligence. These Mupin highlands are 
chiefly noted for the splendor of their birds. Pheasants have been 
found associated with birds more modestly adorned, the nighting- 
gale and other singing birds of the European type are common. 

Here, too, thirty new species have been found and doubtless 
many more are yet undiscovered. Green parrots from South Yun- 
nan find their way in summer into the Upper Kinsha-kiang and 
Yalung valleys. The potato has been introduced to the natives 
of Sechuen by the missionaries in the last century. The soap-tree 
and the tallow-tree are widely cultivated. One of the remarkable 
industries is that of the pei-la, or vegetable wax, which is carried 
on by a division of labor between the inhabitants of two distinct 



MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 219 

districts. The insect secreting the wax is born and reared on the 
leaves of a plant which grows in the Kienchang country, near 
Ningyuen. At the end of April the eggs are gathered and brought 
to Kiating-fu, at the other side of a mountain range, the journey 
requiring all of fourteen days, and being made at night to protect 
the eggs from the heat. The eggs are then detached from the branch 
on which they have been conveyed and transferred to another tree 
of a different specie, on which the insects are hatched, and secrete 
the white vegetable wax. 

SCARCITY OF FUEL. 

In the provinces of Hunan and Kiang-si the flora is of a trop- 
ical character. The oak, chestnut and willow differ from those of 
North China and Mongolia. The golden pine of the upland slopes 
is the largest of the evergreens. Lower down the most common 
tree is a small pine with narrow leaves. At the foot of the hills 
the camphor tree is cultivated, as is also the varnish plant. In 
many towns there is a scarcity of fuel, the timber having been 
generally cleared, and the natives are compelled to use straw, dried 
herbs and brushwood. According to the natives the woods are the 
property of the Emperor, so they take all the wood they require 
for their houses and boats. The hills, though, are still covered 
with shrubs and plants of small size. The wild boar has increased 
in number since the Tai-pings and Imperial troops wasted the 
country. 

A small specie of deer is found on some islets of the Yang-tze- 
kiang river, though separated from the deer by intervening spaces. 
It is found nowhere else in China. The ox, buffalo and pig 
are the only domestic animals raised. The peasantry hold the 
heron in great veneration. The plains in the basin of the Si-kiang 
river are as barren in winter as those of more northern regions. In 
summer the palm and camellia flourish by the side of the oak, 
chestnut and pine. The banana, mango, orange and citron inter- 
mingle with the fruit trees of the temperate zone. Here in the 
open air many leafy shrubs thrive that in Europe are confined to 
the conservatory, A few wild animals of large size are found, 



220 MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

The fox and wild goat are met on the coast, while smaller animals, 
as well as birds, insects and butterflies are numerous. 

The dense forests of the Island of Hainan supply excellent 
building material and are inhabited by the tiger, rhbioceros, a 
specie of ape resembling the orang-outang and wild goat. Pine- 
apple hedges line the fields of sugar corn, mango, banana, indigo, 
cotton, tobacco, rice, potato and tropical fruits. The coco and betel- 
nut palm also flourish. The Coccus pela insect, yielding the vege- 
table wax of commerce is found here. The pearl oyster, fish and 
turtle abound in the neighboring streams. In Western China the 
willow and red birch grow at an altitude of 10,000 feet on the 
Kuku-Nor highlands. 

THE HOME OF MEDICINAL RHUBARB. 

This Eastern Tibetan region is the home of the medicinal 
rhubarb which is highly prized by the Chinese. It formerly reached 
the Western market by way of Russia and Turkey. It is now 
obtained from China by sea, and is more mixed in quality from 
lack of the rigorous Russian inspection. Various species have 
been grown in England for the root but the product is inferior to 
that raised in China. The Chinese merchants of Sining pay high 
prices for this rhubarb. No less than forty-three new species of 
new fauna have been discovered in these regions. A low herbage, 
growing to a height of about seven feet, comprises the flora of 
Southern Mongolia. This herbage produces a berry which is both 
bitter and sweet and which is highly prized by the natives who 
gather it in the autumn and mix it with their barley-meal. This 
forms one of their chief foods. 

In the Chaidan (Tsaidam) valley the fauna chiefly met with 
are a species of antelope, the wolf, fox, hare. The soil of the Gobi 
desert is composed of reddish sands and grass is very rare. From 
Kalgan to Urga, a distance of over four hundred and twenty miles 
only five trees have been found, and these stunted in growth. The 
wind prevents the growth of any vegetation, except low herbage. 
Dead plants are uprooted and scattered about. The fauna of the 
Gobi is no more varied than its flora. The dzeren, an animal prob- 



MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 221 

ably unsurpassed for its speed, is found. He will outstrip the 
fleetest horse, even when mortally wounded, or with a broken leg. 
He cannot be captured unless shot in the head, heart or spine. 
The herd usually consists of thirty or forty head. They have been 
met in nocks of hundreds and even thousands, but these latter 
cases are rare, 

The Mongolian lamas, or priests, of the In-shan uplands, like 
those of Tibet, forbid the killing of antelope. The Ordos plateau 
has an elevation of about three thousand five hundred feet. Its soil 
is sandy and unfit for cultivation. South of the Hoang-ho valley 
the surface is relieved by a few great oases where the gray and 
yellow lizard are found. It is difficult to distinguish them from 
the surrounding country. 

RATAN A NATIVE OF CHINA. 

Beyond the Hoang-ho river the country is more barren and 
desolate than the Ordos region. The tree common to this country 
is the thorny sulkhir. It yields a grain from which the Mongols 
make a sort of flour. Ratan is a native of China and the species 
most common are erect slender canes growing in dense tufts which 
are commercially distinguished from the climbing ratan as ground 
ratan. On account of its light, tough, flexible character and its 
length, ratan is applied to many uses. 

Basket making is a common use, while all sizes of cordage 
from cables to fishing lines are made of it. In many instances the 
stems of climbing ratans are used for the suspension of foot bridges 
of great length. Matting made from the split ratan is exported 
from China to all parts of the world. Whole houses have been 
made of it. The same fiber of which mats are made serves to make 
hats, the bottom of rice sieves and thread for sewing palm-leaves. 
The Chinese rat, so common in seaports, is said to have had much 
to do with the spread of plagues. The rat plague spreads rapidly 
and is conveyed to man by his coming in contact with the dead 
bodies of rats infested with the plague. 

With their invasion of China the Manchus introduced the use 
of the horse, which, previous to that time was unknown to the 



222 MARVELLOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. 

Chinese. Even now it is not generally used in the east along the 
coast. In the western mountain regions, however, it is quite ex- 
tensively used, also in the desert regions. . The Mongols are fond 
of horse racing and are skilled in every kind of horsemanship. 
Races were held in honor of the birth of a Mongol Buddha in 1792, 
in which three thousand seven hundred and thirty-two riders par- 
ticipated. It is not surprising that with such a varied flora as 
China possesses, and the success of her gardeners, her people are 
passionately fond of flowers. This is true of both sexes, young 
and old. She is truly called " Flowery Kingdom." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Complexity of the Language. 

Fanaticism Governs Speech— Grammar an Unknown Quantity— Each Province has a 
Different Tongue — Language of the Mandarins — Location of a Word Fixes its 
Meaning — Figures of Speech Excessively Used — Foreigners much Puzzled— Pho- 
netics Govern Understanding — What " Pidgeon English" Is. 

THE mysterious names appearing in the Chinese dispatches be- 
come familiar enough when translated thus ; 

Tung means east ; si, west ; nan, south ; pei, north ; 
while tsin, kin or king, stands for capital of metropolis, as Pekin 
(northern capital) and Nanking (southern capital). Tien means 
heaven, so Tien-Tsin signifies heavenly metropolis. Ho or kiang 
means river, so Pei-ho is north river; Si-kiang, west river. Che 
means seven, so Che-kiang is seven rivers. Shan is mountain, and 
Shantung, east mountain city, and Shan-si west mountain. Pai 
is white, and Pai-shan, white mountain. Hai is sea, and kwan 
stands for gate, so Hai-kwan (the maritime customs) is the gate of 
the sea, and Shan-hai-kwan, mountain and sea gate. Shang is a 
city, and Shanghai, city by the sea. Hoang is yellow ; Hoang-Ho, 
Yellow River, and Hoang-Hai, Yellow Sea. 

Yang means ocean, and Tse, son ; hence, the Yang-tse river is 
son of the ocean, and Tientse, son of heaven, (the Emperor). Ku 
or kaw is a mouth or pass, and ta big or great, so Taku means big 
mouth (of Pei-ho), while Nankow stands for south pass (from Mon- 
golia). Hu is a lake ; ling, a hill ; hsiang, a village ; hsien, a tax 
district. Fu is a prefecture ; tai, a governor ; tao, a circuit or 
group of administrative departments ; so tao-tai is a governor of 
a circuit, and fu-tai is a governor of a prefecture. Chao or kiao is 
a bridge.; li, a Chinese mile; pa, eight, and thus Pa-li-kiaois eight 
mile bridge. Cho or chow is a depot or stopping place ; hence, 
Tung-chow eastern depot (of Pekin). Shen is a province, and 
Shen-si is the western province. 

Yamen is a police station or official residence, and Hui, a 

223 



224 COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

secret society or club. Ts'ing means pure or clear, Ts'ing-kaing is 
clear river, while Ta To Ts'ing means great pure (name of present 
dynasty) and Kwo being a kingdom or empire, Ta-Ts'ing Kwo sig- 
nifies the Empire of the great pure (China). Ta-Mei-Ka is the 
name applied by the Chinese to the United States, and means great 
America. 

FANATICISM AFFECTS TERMS. 

The fanatical religious qualities of the Chinaman have led to 
the introduction into his language of many terms having their 
origin strictly in religious fervor. But the fervor which may in- 
fluence a Chinaman in one province is not the same as that which 
may influence a Chinaman in another province. Hence, two dif- 
ferent words are coined — one understood by one Chinaman and one 
understood -by the other, but both not understood by either. This 
leads to many confusions of mind on the part of the foreigner en- 
deavoring to master the language before traveling through the 
provinces. The Chinese language is the foremost in that class 
that includes the Tibetan, Cochin-Chinese, Burmese, Corean and 
Chinese. The customary description of these languages is that 
they are monosyllabic. J. Marshman, in his " Elements of Chinese 
Grammar,'' says : " In the language every word is a root and every 
root is a word. It is without inflection or even agglutination ; its 
substantives are indeclinable and its verbs are not to be conjugated ; 
it is destitute of an alphabet and finds its expressions on paper in 
thousands of distinct symbols. It is then a language of monosyl- 
labic roots, which, as regards the written character, has been 
checked in its growth and crystalized in its most ancient form by 
the early occurrence of a period of great literary activity, of which 
the nation is proud, and to the productions of which every China- 
man, even to the present day, looks back as containing the true 
standards of literary excellence." 

The Japanese in studying the Chinese tongue treats it as two 
languages— the written and the spoken. There the Chinese charac- 
ters were at one time in general use as representing the phonetic 
value of their Japanese equivalents. The Chinese lexicographers 



COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 225 

claim that all the characters in their written language had their 
origin in single strokes or in hieroglyphics. This is believed to 
be true. But as to who was the inventor of writing, there is yet 
much doubt. One legend attributes the invention to Fuh-he (3200 
B.C.), who is also said to have instituted the custom of marriage 
and to have introduced the use of clothing. 

Another authority states that Tsangki, who lived 2700 B.C., 
was the inventor. By the native accounts this Tsangki was a man 
of extraordinary ability and was acquainted with the art of writing 
from his birth. As the legend goes he was walking one day near 
his house at Yang- Woo when he met a tortoise. Stooping to ex- 
amine its shell closely, he noticed the beautiful spots. This he 
studied and from them formed the idea of representing objects 
around him. Afterwards he looked at the heavens and observed 
the figures formed by the stars and the constellations. From these 
he passed to the study of the forms of birds and of mountains and 
rivers, and at last originated what became the written character. 

FIRST WRITTEN CHARACTERS PICTURES. 

Whoever invented the first characters, it is certain they were 
pictures of various objects which were present to the eye of the 
writer. Whenever he wished to express a mountain he wrote a 
character triangular in form resembling a mountain, to signify the 
eye he used a character resembling the eye and so on. But this 
form of writing was naturally limited. Gradually, by the addition 
of strokes, and the combination of one or more of these characters, 
the written language of to-day was formed. The growth of the 
later characters are divided into six classes by the native philo- 
logists. 

The first is called Siang hing, or the characters representing 
the forms of the objects meant, such as those just mentioned, and 
about six hundred more, as, for example, the sun was represented 
by a circle with a dot in the center, a horse by four parallel lines 
at right angles with a perpendicular line. Below these four lines 
were written four characters corresponding with our apostrophe. 
Of these six hundred characters were composed, with a few excep- 
15 



22G COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

tions, the two hundred and fourteen determinative or radical char- 
acters, one of which enters into the composition of every character 
in the language. 

The second class is called Chi sze, or characters indicating 
things. In other words, characters intended to represent ideas to 
the mind by the positiou of their parts. The third class is made 
up of Hwuy i, characters combining ideas, or ideographics. This 
class is formed by uniting two or more characters to give the idea 
of a third. It is not known when these characters were invented. 
An analysis of some of them give an insight into the moral and 
social conditions of those who framed them. For instance, the 
character sin, " sincere," is formed by the combination ofthe char- 
acters jin, " a man," and yen, " words." Thus the character sin 
means " man words." The character Hwang, " Emperor," belongs 
to this class. As originally written it was composed of characters 
meaning " oneself" and " ruler;" the Emperor, therefore, was to be 
ruler of himself. Said the ancient sages : 

CHARACTERS INVERTED HAVE A DIFFERENT MEANING. 

" How can a man rule others, unless he first learn to be master 
of himself?" 

By the omission of a stroke the character Hwang, " Emperor," 
assumed its present form, which consists of parts signifying 
" white" and "ruler." This has been translated by the Mongols 
into Tchagau Khan, and then by the Prussians into Biely Tsar, or 
White Tsar, the name by which the Czar of Russia is known 
throughout Asia. Another character belonging to this class is 
ming, " brightness," composed of a combination of the sun and 
moon, to indicate brilliancy. There are said to be about seven 
hundred of these ideographics in the Chinese language. The 
fourth class is the Chuen choo, or characters which assume differ- 
ent meanings on being inverted either in form or sound. These 
number about three hundred and seventy-two and are formed in two 
ways — by a slight alteration of the character, as the turning of one 
or more strokes from the right to the left and by changing the 
sound of the character. 



COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 227 

The fifth class is the Chia chieh, characters having borrowed 
meanings. This class consists of abont six hundred characters 
which are applied in a double sense. Hence, they have been called 
metaphorical. 

TWENTY THOUSAND PHONETIC CHARACTERS. 

The sixth class is known as the Chieh shing, or phonetic and 
is composed of over twenty thousand characters. The adoption of 
phonetics was the turning point in the progress of Chinese writing. 
Having exhausted their power of invention in forming hieroglyph- 
ics and ideographics, they adopted characters to represent sound. 
There is no record of when or by whom these phonetics were 
invented or introduced. A well-known Chinese author writes : 

" A character is not sterile ; once bound to another, it gives 
birth to a son ; and if this be joined to another, a grandson is born, 
and so on." 

Phonetic characters are composed of two parts, the primitive, 
and the determinative. There are two hundred and fourteen deter- 
minatives. Every Chinese character is composed of one or more 
of these determinatives. The number of primitives has been vari- 
ously estimated, one authority gives them at 3,867, and others at 
from 1,000 to 1,200. These primitives and determinatives are com- 
bined into the thirty and odd thousand characters of the Chinese 
language. A Chinaman wishing to give the name of a tree on 
paper known to him colloquially as ma, would use a common pho- 
netic possessing the sound ma and combine it with the determina- 
tive Muh, meaning " wood." 

The new character would signify " the ma tree." Under this 
system the reader would have to be previously informed what kind 
of a tree was meant, as the character would only indicate that it 
was either a tree or something made of wood and that it was pro- 
nounced ma. This is true with all the characters. It is possible 
by a careful study of the phonetics to arrive at the approximate 
sounds of the characters of the language ; but their meaning is 
indicated by the determinatives, and these only point to the general 
nature of the objects or actions signified. Native dictionary-makers 



228 COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

have arranged the characters of the language under the headings 
of the two hundred and fourteen determinatives, and also classified 
them according to their final sounds. 

The Chinese characters are constantly being changed. Chi- 
nese books record instances of six distinct styles of writing, varying 
in clearness from the square character used in the books at the 
present day to the Seal and Grass characters, noted for their 
obscurity. These styles are described as the Chuen shoo or " seal 
character," the Le shoo or " official character," the Keae shoo or 
" model character," the Hing shoo or " running character," the 
Tsaou shoo or " grass character," and the Sung shoo or " Sung- 
dyuasty character." The Chinese imagination invents many char- 
acters in addition to the above named styles, and it may be said 
that nearly every Chinaman has a system of his own, understood 
by no one but himself. 

TONES ESSENTIAL TO MEANING. 

In the Chinese Library of the British Museum is a copy of the 
Emperor Keen-lung's poem on Moukdeu, printed in both Chinese 
and Manchoo in thirty-two kinds of characters. In comparison 
with the large number of their characters, the Chinese sounds are 
few, the 30,000 different characters of their language being repre- 
sented to the ear by only 500 syllabic sounds. Three methods 
have been adopted to prevent confusion in conversation in repre- 
senting their thousands of characters by 500 syllables. They are 
— first, by combining with the word, which it is desired should be 
understood, another of a similar meaning to distinguish it by 
pointing to its meaning from other words bearing the same sound, 
for example, for " to hear " they would say in conversation ting 
keen; ting meaning "to hear" and keen " to see or perceive." 
Second, nouns are distinguished by placing certain classifying 
words between them and the numerals which precede them — as, the 
word pa, " to grasp with the hand " is used as a classifier to precede 
anything which is held in the hand, such as a knife, a spoon or a 
hatchet. 

Third, by dividing the words of the language among eight 



COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 229 

tones. These tones are divided into two series, the npper and 
lower, and are called, the upper even, the upper rising, the upper 
departing, the upper entering, the lower even, the lower rising, the 
lower departing, and the lower entering. To each character is 
allotted its proper tone, and if wrongly rendered will give an 
1 entirely different meaning to the word than that intended by the 
speaker. Only the four tones of the upper series are in general 
use, to which the even tone of the lower series is frequently added. 
The even tone is the ordinary tone of voice ; the rising tone gives 
to the voice the effect of an interrogation ; the departing tone of 
doubtful surprise, and the entering tone that of peremptory com- 
mand. These may be easily illustrated by repeating our negative 
"no " in the ordinary tone of conversation, as an interrogation, as 
an expression of doubtful surprise, and as a peremptory refusal. 
To acquire knowledge of the tones proper in common use the chil- 
dren learn them from the lips of the natives themselves — no study of 
books will give the required knowledge. They are learned by ear. 

AN INTRICATE SYSTEM PUZZLING TO FOREIGNERS. 

It can be easily understood how this intricate system puzzles 
Chinese-speaking foreigners and causes them to make mistakes 
and to get into difficulties that are inconvenient and often danger- 
ous. Some years ago a petition in behalf of a Chinese criminal 
was presented by a wealthy Chinese merchant personally to the 
governor and council of Hong Kong. A well-known Chinese 
scholar acted as interpreter. The merchant began his speech with 
a reference to our Kwai Kwok ( u Honorable Kingdom "), as he des- 
ignated England. The syllable kwai, pronounced as it is spelled, 
means " devil," and used in connection with kwok is an abusive 
term commonly applied to any foreign country. The interpreter 
confused the two tones. He turned indignantly to the governor 
) and stated that the petitioner had opened his speech by referring 
to England as the " devil kingdom." The council became very 
angry, and it took some minutes of earnest conversation before an 
explanation could be made. This saved the merchant from sharing 
the cell of the man he was trying to plead for. 



230 COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

For spelling the various sounds, the Chinese have adopted 
thirty-six characters, beginning with the initial consonants of the 
language, and thirty-eight ending with the final sounds. To indi- 
cate a desired sound, a character which begins with the required 
initial and a character which ends with the required final, are 
used. These are placed together, the initial of the first and the 
final of the second giving the required sound. If a Chinaman 
wished to express that the sound of a certain character was ting 
he would write the two characters tang and king, the first would 
give the initial t and the second the final ing. This syllabic spell- 
ing was introduced by the Buddhist missionaries in the fifth and 
sixth centuries. 

NOUNS REGARDED AS NEUTER GENDER. 

Little attention has been paid by the Chinese to the grammar 
of their language, but in every Chinese sentence, as in English, 
the subject comes first, then the verb, which is followed by the 
complement, direct and indirect, and every word which modifies or 
defines another precedes it. The grammatical value of a Chinese 
word is indicated by its position in a sentence. Native gramma- 
rians have done little for the science of grammar beyond the divid- 
ing of the characters into the following classes : sze tsze, or " dead 
words," as they call nouns ; liwo tsze, " living words " or verbs ; 
Hsu tsze, " empty words " or particles. A change of tone will 
change a word from a noun to a verb. Nouns denoting human 
beings are not regarded as masculine or feminine gender. All 
nouns are neuter gender. Dr. Caldwell, in writing of this fact, 
states : 

" The unimaginative Scythian reduced all things, whether 
rational or irrational, animate or inanimate, to the same dead level 
and regarded them all as impersonal." 

But in every language the gender of certain words must be 
distinguished, and to these the Chinese prefix words denoting sex. 
Thus a son is spoken of as nan tsze or " man-child," and a daughter 
as neu tsze or " woman-child." In the case of animals other words 
are used. Kung, " noble," " superior," denotes the male, and moo, 



COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 231 

" mother," indicates the female. Kung ma is " a horse," and moo 
ma is " a mare." The male of birds is described as knng, " mar- 
tial " or " brave," and the female as tsze, "weak" or " inferior." 
The connection of a word to a sentence denotes whether it is singu- 
lar or plural. The plural is sometimes indicated by repeating the 
noun, as jin jin, " the men," or by the presence of a numeral, as 
in the following expression taken from the Confucian Analects, ' 
" The three disciples went out." 

PLURALIZING A NOUN. 

Another way of pluralizing a noun is by adding one of certain 
words signifying "all" or "many." The most common of these 
are chung, choo, keae, fan and tang. The first four mean " all," 
and the last (tang) means "a class." The first four precede the 
noun while tang always follows it and forms with it a compound, 
such as " animal-class " for animals, and " men-class " for men. 
In colloquial Chinese the character mun has been adopted as a 
sign of the plural, but its use is confined to the personal pronouns. 
Wo means " I," and wo mun " we." The rules of position which 
serve to fix the parts of speech of the words of a sentence are fre- 
quently allowed to regulate the cases of nouns and the moods and 
tenses of verbs. 

With words of giving to and speaking to the dative case is 
marked by position. The person to whom a thing is given imme- 
diately follows the verb and the thing given comes next. The 
accusative case is as a rule marked by position, but occasionally 
the particles yu, yu, e, and hoo are disassociated from their usual 
signification and are employed simply as signs of this case. 

The instrumental case is indicated by the character e, " by," 
in the language of the books, and by yung, " to use," in the collo- 
quial. The following passage from Mencius will furnish an 
instance of the first : j 

" Nan wang e fei ke taou." '' 

The translation of this quotation is " A superior man cannot 
be entrapped by that which is contrary to right principles." The 
ablative case having the sense of " from " is marked by the signs 



232 COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

tsze and yew and in the colloquial by tsung, for example : Tsze 
sang min e lae, " From the birth of mankind until now ;" Yew 
Tang che yu Woo-ting, " From Tang until you arrived at Woo- 
ting;" Ta tsung Pih king lea leaou, " He has come from Pekin." 
The remarks which have been made in regard to the gender, num- 
ber and case apply to the adjectives. The comparative degree of 
adjectives is denoted by certain particles meaning " more than " or 
''beyond ;" in the colloquial by such forms of expression as " This 
man compared with that man is good," or " This man has not that 
man's goodness." Tsuy, " excelling;" keih, " the highest point ;" 
and shin, " exceeding " denote the superlative degree. 

PERSONAL PRONOUNS. 

In the Oriental languages the personal pronouns play a promi- 
nent part from their number and the variety of equivalent terms. 
Woo, urh and ke are the terms most commonly used in classical 
writings to denote the first, second and third persons of the per- 
sonal pronoun. Wo, ne, and ta are the colloquial equivalents. 
The plural of the latter are wo mun, ne mun, ta mun. The charac- 
ter chin is especially reserved for the Emperor and has been the 
traditional imperial " We " since the time of the three mythical 
Emperors, to whose wisdom, energy and foresight the greatness of 
China is attributed by native historians. In times of national mis- 
fortune, the Emperor does not feel entitled to use this pronoun and 
believes that he himself is responsible for the evils which overtake 
his country. He then designates himself Kwa Jin, meaning " De- 
ficient man." Among the people the pronoun " I " is rarely used 
in conversation, its place being taken by terms giving compli- 
mentary importance to the person spoken to. The commonest of 
these expressions are " the dullard," " the little one," and " the 
man of low degree," while the term applied by ministers to them- 
selves when addressing the Emperor is nu tsai, or " slave." 

The speaker's relations and personal belongings are spoken 
of as " the little," " the mean," and " the cheap." The expressions 
applied to the aged are " Master," " Old Gentleman," or " Senior." 
Holders of the low ofiices, such as the heen, or district magistrates, 



COMPLEXITY, OF THE LANGUAGE. 233 

are addressed by law as Lao ye, " Old Fathers ;" as they rise tliey 
become Ta lao ye, " Great Old Fathers ;" and when they reach the 
higher ranks, snch as the governors of provinces, they are called 
Ta jin, " Great Men." The belongings of others are spoken of as 
" worshipful," honorable," or " august." 

ADOPTION OF CHINESE NUMERALS UNCERTAIN. 

There is no certainty as to the time when the Chinese adopted 
the numerals in use to-day. Some reference is found to them in 
the Book of History. It is inferred that they were in existence 
before the sixth century B.C. They number seventeen ^nd are as 
follows : yih, " one ; " urh, " two ; " san, " three ; " sze, " £ ur :" woo, 
"five;" luh, "six;" tseih, " seven ; " pa, " eight;" k /'nine;" 
shih, " ten ; " pih, " a hundred ; " tseen, " a thousand ; <, " ten 

thousand;" yih, " one hundred thousand;" chaou, " a m*" 

keng, " ten millions," and kai, " a hundred millions." 
four are seldom used, while the rest are hourly employ ^he 

numbers between ten and one hundred are formed by shih, " 
combined with the lower numerals. Thus, thirteen won 1 shih 

san. The figures between twenty and a hundred are designated by 
shih, " ten," preceded by the other numeral, hence san shih would 
be " thirty." 

Moods and tenses of verbs are expressed by position. Position 
has everything to do for the Chinese verb, accomplishing its mis- 
sion in two ways ; by stating the time at which the action has 
taken place, or is about to take place, or by prefixing or suffixing 
certain words whose varied meanings supply similar information. 
In the colloquial sentence : Joo kin ta lai, joo kin (" now ") indi- 
cates that the action is present and the three characters are trans- 
lated, " He is coming." 

Substituting the words ming neen (" next year ") for joo kin, 
the verb lai becomes future tense, or " Next year he will come." 
Again, shang yue ta lai (shang yue meaning " last month ") changes 
the verb to past tense, and the sentence becomes, " Last month he 
came." The present tense of the verb is not denoted by a word, 
tense-particles being employed to explain the past and future 



234 COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

tenses. Ta keu leaou, or ta keu kwo, would mean "he went," 
while ta tseang keu or ta yaou keu would be " he will go." 

POETIC LICENSE UNKNOWN. 

The word heu, meaning " to allow," " to permit," corresponds 
to our word " let." Heu ta keu means " let him go." The diffi- 
culties of acquiring a knowledge of Chinese have been exaggerated. 
The language :s s< mcient that our own sinks into insignificance 
when the antiquity of the one is considered, and at this time the 
language should be better understood. Chinese literature has lost 
much of i s variety and elegance through the fact that the language 
is withoui inflexion, :ind the laws of syntax permit no word to be 
moved ft its determined position in a sentence. Poetic licence 
is in to the '^inese poet. 

x^ t missi > raries have attempted to introduce one or the 

ihe syllabic alphabets of India, but without success. The 
i/n missionaries have used the Latin alphabet for prayers 
nd hymns. The,- the native converts learn by heart, the mis- 
. ion '~ €rst exp! ning their meaning. For literary purposes 
these lettWa require so many diacritical marks that they become 
more difficult than the Chinese ideographics. 

Pigeon English is an artificial dialect of corrupt English with 
a few Chinese words arranged according to the Chinese idiom. It 
is used by the Chinese and foreigners for colloquial convenience 
in their business transactions and dealings in the treaty ports of 
China and elsewhere in the China seas. A gradual transformation 
is taking place under Western influence. Many polysyllabic words 
are becoming generally used by the populace and have a natural 
tendency to modify the Chinese method of thought and assimilate 
it to that of the European. Many strange forms have been intro- 
duced in the treaty ports to express foreign notions. For instance, 
u steam-air- carriage," " steam-air-boat," " air-swim-steam," meaning 
locomotive, steamer and balloon. 

These expressions are becoming common in Chinese writings 
as well as in their speech. Many colloquial terms have entered 
into this jargon, but most of the expressions are so changed that 



COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 235 

they can no longer be recognized either by Chinese or foreigners 
under their new forms. The " Mandarin " or court language com- 
mon throughout the northern and many central provinces, and the 
Kwangtong, Fokien and Chekiang spoken in the southeastern 
provinces are not understood outside these provinces. The Nan- 
king is a form of the Mandarin and best preserves the primitive 
elements of the common national speech. 

The present dynasty of China being Manchus, the Man- 
churian language has become one of the classic languages of the 
Empire. Candidates for high offices of state are obliged to learn 
it. Savants engaged in the study of Chinese history and literature 
find that a knowledge of the Manchurian language is necessary. 
Since the Manchu conquest the most important Chinese works 
have been translated into the language of the conquerors and these 
translations often throw great light on the obscurities of the 
original texts. The Manchu is a sonorous language, easily 
acquired, its inflections and syntax being regular. It consists of 
monosyllabic roots, whose meanings are modified by suffixes. 

LANGUAGE OF TIBETANS CHANGING. 

The Ninchi, ancestors of the present Manchus, who gave to 
China the Kin dynasty, borrowed their writing system from the 
Chinese in the twelfth century. Since the close of the sixteenth 
century, however, the letters used by them are of Mongol origin, 
and consequently derived from the Aramean system introduced by 
the Nestorians into Central Asia. The Emperor Kang-hi caused 
a Manchu lexicon to be compiled, from which all words of Chinese 
origin were excluded. Amiot's was the first Manchu dictionary 
published by a European towards the end of the last century. 
Since then, several others have appeared in various European 
languages. 

The Tibetans, in the evolution of their speech, which has been 
studied chiefly by Foucaux, Csoma de Koros, Schiefner and Jaschke, 
have outlived the period in which the Chinese are still found. The 
monosyllabic character of the language, which differs from all 
other Asiatic tongues, has nearly been effaced. The official style 



236 COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 

fixed by the priests twelve hundred years ago is still maintained 
in literature, but the current speech, has gradually become poly- 
syllabic, and the practice of distinguishing the sense of monosyl- 
lables by their varied intonation is beginning to disappear. 

NUMEROUS TIBETAN DIALECTS. 



Old words, whose meaning has been lost, have been agglutin- 
ated to the roots to form nominal and verbal inflections. The 
various alphabetical systems are derived from the Devanagari intro- 
duced from India by the first Buddhist missionaries. The present 
pronounciation of few other languages differs more from the written 
form than does the Tibetan, whose ancient orthography has been 
maintained for centuries. Many of the written letters are either 
silent or sounded differently, just as gh in the English words 
enough, rough, is pronounced f, while it is silent in plough, bough. 
In the Tibetan, dbjus, becomes us ; bkra shis lhun po becomes 
Tashilunpo. 

The Tibetan dialects are numerous and bear little resemblance 
to each other. The peoples of Bod stock are found in Kashmir, 
Bhutan and Sechuen, west, south and east. Several wild tribes in 
the east and north belong to different races more or less mixed 
together. In the south the Mishmis, Abors and others are allied 
to the hillmen of Assam ; while the Arru, Pa-i or Ghion, Telu and 
Remepang all speak varieties of the Melam, an archaic and poly- 
syllabic Tibetan language mixed with many foreign elements. 
The Amdoans of the northeast near the Kansu frontier speak both 
their mother tongue and Tibetan. 

The current speech of the Kashgarians differs little from the 
Turki dialect of Tashkent, the chief differences arising from the 
use of Chinese words and of some Kirghiz expressions. The East 
Turkestan dialect, spoken with great uniformity throughout the 
J Tarim basin, possesses no literary importance. The speech of the 
Mongolian has a large number of roots in common with the Turki 
branch of the ural-altaic family. It is spoken with considerable 
dialectic variety by the Khalkhas, Buriats, and Eluits, who are not 
always able to converse together. 



COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. 237 

Many foreign elements have crept in and the pnre national 
speech has been much corrupted by contact with the Chinese Man- 
chus, Tibetans, and Turki tribes on the frontiers. Over two thou- 
sand years ago it was reduced to writing, employing at that time 
the Chinese ideographic characters. At the beginning of the 
tenth century an alphabetic system was adopted. In the twelfth 
century this was again changed and another style employed to 
translate the Chinese classic works. These books have all been 
destroyed and the characters in which they were written have been 
forgotten. In 1269 a lama, or priest, invented a national alphabet 
and this finally prevailed. Tibetan has been the sacred language 
of the Mongolians since their conversion to Buddhism. Figures of 
speech are excessively used throughout the Empire, both by the 
common people in their daily conversation and by the literary men 
in their writings. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Oriental Habits and Customs. 

Rule ot Conduct with the White Man— Fondness for Gambling— Small Feet of Women — 
Reverence for Ancestors— Innumerable Temples— Burial of the Dead— Use of Opium 
—Influence of Tea— Position of Children— Self-torture Inflicted— How the Queue 
Came— The Chinese Dude— Letter Writing - New Year's Time. 

TO better comprehend the fury of the Chinese against the Euro- 
peans, one must know that to the Chinese the white man is 
a demon — worse than a demon, a sorcerer. The last title 
has been carefully put in the heads of the ignorant classes, and 
modern improvements introduced by the white man have been 
used to prove that he possesses occult power which is not subjected 
to ordinary laws. To the Chinese native the modern railroads are 
works of the evil one. They claim the demons with white faces 
have terrible wagons which traverse the country drawn by dragons 
vomiting fire. To the ignorant Chinese used to river navigation 
as the only means of transport the steam engine seems a dragon 
of the demon, and his refusal to become acquainted with it pre- 
vents him from overcoming his horror of it. 

Surrounded by the impenetrable wall of their own ignorance 
of modern things, the Chinese of the lower classes — and these 
classes contribute their forces to the Boxers — the native nurses his 
hatred for the foreign demon with the same jealous care that he 
nurses and preserves his own antique customs and ideals. The 
modern invention to him seems to have sprung from the bowels of 
the earth through relations with the demons below, represented by 
the white demons above. From this false conception of the Euro- 
pean the Chinese is ready to exterminate him, urged on to the 
? worst by a fanaticism which knows no moderation. 

THE CHINESE LACK NERVES. 

It often seems inexplicable that the Chinese, who in Europe 
appear docile, gentle — almost feminine — can at moments become 
the ferocious, barbarous monsters of which Europe has recently 
238 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 



239 



had such a horrible example. This is due to the lack of nerves of 
the average Chinaman. When he is to be punished torture must 
be resorted to in order to touch him. He naturally reasons that 
the same torture is necessary to awaken the sensibilities of suffer- 
ing in the European, in whom nerves are keener, and to whom a 




CHINESE MODES OF TORTURE. 

tenth of torture causes more suffering than the totality to the 
Chinese. 

The Chinese themselves attach no value to life. A striking 
proof of this is often shown at a public execution. The man with 
his head ready for the sword often offers 300 taels — a little over 
$300 — for a substitute, and not one, but ten or twenty ineii rush to 
take his place, because the money assures the necessary rites and 

L prayers to enable the decapitated man to enjoy perpetual celestial 
bliss. 



240 ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

The Chinese always has his spiritual welfare in mind, and 
considers it far more important than his material existence or hap- 
piness. In the latter, so far as his word is concerned, the Chinese 
have only a relative confidence, and a popular Chinese saying is 
that " happiness is like a vase placed upon the nose of a Mandarin 
before he sneezes." Another proverb is that " one takes the edge 
off of the sword of the enemy by placing gold above it." Another 
apropos saying is that " eleven-tenths of Chinese soldiers are 
thieves. 

An idea of the innate savagery of the Chinese is illustrated by 
a personal experience. A woman servant was accidently struck 
on the breast by a companion man-servant. Believing her body 
desecrated by the touch of a male hand — her breast was bare, as is 
often the case among the coolie element in hot countries — she 
seized a carving knife and hacked off the breast in a fury, and, 
although she died shortly after in great agony, maintained a stoic 
indifference for her sufferings, and gave up her last breath in an 
ecstasy of self-abnegation, believing she had saved her body from 
pollution and would be rewarded in the next world. 

GAMBLING WITH DICE. 

The Chinaman enjoys gambling. He is fond of the lottery ; 
he is fond of fan-tan ; he is fond of his dice. He has dice which 
he calls shik-tsai. These are cubes of bone, regularly marked, but 
differing from those of India in having both the ones and fours 
marked in red ; the " one " spots larger than the others, and in all 
the spots being simply round marks without circumscribed circles. 
They are not in pairs and are usually sold in sets of six. 

The Chinese play a great variety of dice games, the principal 
one being with two dice and known as chak-t-in-kan, " throwing 
Heavens and nines," from the names of the two highest throws. 

In this game the twenty-two throws that can be made with two 
dice receive different names and are divided into two series or 
suites, called Man, " civil," and Mo, " military." 

The eleven Man throws in the order of their rank are: 

" Double six," called t'in, " Heaven." 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 241 

" Double one," called ti, " Earth/ 
" Double four," called yan, " Man." 
11 One, three," called wo, " Harmony." 
" Double five/' called mui, " plum flower." 
" Double three," called cheung sam, " long threes." 
" Double two," called pan tang, " bench." 
" Five, six," called fu t'au, " tiger's head." 
" Four, six," called hnng t'au shap, " red head ten." 
" One, six," called ko keuk ts'at, " long leg seven." 
" One, five," called hung ch'ui luk, " red mallet six.'* 
The ten Mo throws in order of their rank are : 
11 Five, four," and " six, three," called kau, " nines." 
" Five, three," and " six, two," called pat, " eights.'' 
" Five, two," and " four, three," called ts'at, " sevens." 
" Four, two," called luk, " six." 
" Three, two," and " four, one," called 'ng, " fives.'' 
" One, two," called sam, " three," or sam kai, " three final." 
The antiquity of dice in China is not known. They appear to 
have been introduced into that country from India. It will be 
observed that a cosmical significance is attached to the dice throws, 
the " six " being called " Heaven," and its opposite, " one,'' 
" Earth." The " four " between is designated as " Man." 

The game of Ta t'in kau is in many respects the most inter- 
esting Chinese domino game. It somewhat resembles the card 
games of Europe, and is of considerable antiquity in China, exist- 
ing, according to Mr. Wilkinson, in 1120 A. d. 

CHINESE INVENTED DOMINOES. 

The invention of the game of dominoes has been variously 
attributed to the Jews, the Greeks and the Chinese. It may be 
justly credited to the latter people. No date can be assigned to its 
invention, and from the cosmical associations of the pieces, and 
their use in divination, which continues in China to the present 
day, it may be regarded as having been originally used for that pur- 
pose. That dominoes originated in dice is clearly apparent, the chief 
problem being the reason for the duplication of the eleven pieces. 
16 



242 ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

With the knowledge derived from the study of games in gen^ 
eral, this may be assumed to have been done, in order that the dice 
throws might accord with the thirty-two points that represent the 
Four Quarters and the intermediary divisions of the world. They 
may be looked upon as having been implements of magic for deter- 
mining number and place, corresponding with playing cards, from 
which they only differ in material, as Mr. Wilkinson has sug- 
gested. 

In addition to the long wooden dominoes, small dominoes made 
of bamboo, or bone, or wood and bone conjoined like those of 
Corea, are used in various parts of China. Sets in which the series 
is several times duplicated also occur in China, as well as dominoes 
on which the dots are replaced by the characters that stand for the 
chess pieces, and the suit marks of certain Chinese playing-cards. 

ORIGIN OF THE QUEUE. 

Why does the Chinaman wear a queue or pig-tail ? Ask the 
average Chinaman and he will be unable to tell you. He will 
make some vague allusion to his religion or say, " because." But 
there is a definite reason for the custom and this definite reason 
goes back almost to the beginning of what Elsmere calls " histor- 
ical evidence.'' When man emerged from his primitive state and 
first realized that the strongest could rule the weakest, temporarily 
at least, he was exceedingly bothered as to what to do with his 
hair. As a " primitive " he has paid little attention to it for it was 
clothing, ornament and protection to him. 

But now that the skins of animals were his attire and new 
views of comfort were forcing themselves upon him, his hair was 
bothersome. The wind tossed it into the bushes where it caught 
and held him. In use of his weapons it bothered his eyes. It took 
up dirt and proved to be a nuisance. Many generations he cogi- 
tated over the problem. Bit by bit he discovered that the hides he 
wore were wearing down the hair on his breasts and legs and the 
skin was appearing. By the use of sharp-edged stones he was able 
to remove it from his face. Why not use the stones upon his 
head ? He did so, but with restrictions. The strongest man in the 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 243 

community — lie set the fashions — simply cut away the hair from 
his forehead and made a plait of that which was heavy on top and 
behind. Thus he removed the nuisance and improved his appear- 
ance. He permitted his friends and allies to do the same, but the 
weak members of his community, to distinguish them from all the 
rest, were compelled to shave off all their hair, a sign of their ser- 
vitude to the strong. 

Gradually, though the strong man came of the impression 
that he needed more head shaving, not only for convenience sake 
but for ornamentation. So he shaved and shaved until he reduced 
the amount of his hair to a tuft in the center of the scalp. His 
slaves were permitted to shave the same way, but instead of a tuft 
their hair was twisted into a queue which hung straight down the 
back to the hips. This queue was a mark of bondage and later an 
acknowledgment of superiority on the part of the weak to the 
strong who needed not the queue. 

HAIR WAS WORN ONCE IN ANY FASHION. 

Such was the practice in Central Asia, west of the Chinese 
Empire, and in the Tartar country north of the Empire up to the 
year 1644 after Christ. In China itself up to that time the hair 
was worn in varying fashions but never in the queue fashion. 
The Tartars, whom the Chinese feared, marked all their subjects 
with queues but the pigtail was unknown to the Chinaman until 
1644. Why after that he was compelled to wear it is another 
story in which there is a bit of religion, some superstition and 
much tyranny. 

While for 3,700 years China was seething and boiling 
within herself, there was forming on her northern borders, a 
race of people destined to change the entire course of develop- 
ment of her people. This race came from certain Tungusic 
tribes whose original home was in Manchuria and Mongolia. 
They bore the name of Tartars or Manchurians, and as early 
as 907 had conquered a part of China and made much trouble 
within the Empire. In 1644 they again entered China and 
after much bloodshed conquered it. They set Sun-che upon the 



244 ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

throne and inangnrated the Manchu or Ta-tsing dynasty, which 
still prevails in China. They were horsemen of great prowess. 
They shaved their heads entirely or wore tnfts quite similar to 
that displayed by some tribes of North American Indians. They 
were prodigious fighters, savage lovers, iconoclastic in every respect. 
When their soldiery were in possession of the Empire they col- 
lected all the Chinese women needed, placed each in a bag, tied the 
open end of the bag, and then made their soldiers take a bag and 
settle down with it. 

NEVER SAW HIS FUTURE WIFE. 

All he knew was that it was a woman and that she was to be 
his future wife, whether she was old or young, pretty or ugly, 
blind or halt. The Chinaman did not like this. He rebelled, but 
so far his rebellions have been futile. But what thus in China 
became part of a law and a^religion strangely enough in England 
in the eighteenth century was merely a hairdressing custom, bor- 
rowed from the French, who in turn copied it from the Chinese. 
When the Tartars came upon the Chinaman, he wore his hair in 
quite ornamental fashion. The Tartars put an end to this. They 
said : 

" You are servants of our dynasty. You must not only 
acknowledge the Manchu, but must show outwardly a sign of sub- 
mission. Shave your head close to the scalp at all spots but the 
center. There permit it to grow long and twist it into a long coil. 
When thus you wear your hair you will be known as a faithful 
subject of the dynasty. Otherwise you are liable to be mistaken 
for a traitor and tortured." 

The Chinaman obeyed, and by 1651 the shaved head and the 
pigtail — the sign of Tartar sovereignty — was almost universally 
adopted. The native priests of China, like all other priests, were 
anxious to curry favor with the ruling powers. So to make the 
shaved head and queue still more permanent they began to preach 
that no Chinaman could enter heaven if he did not have his queue 
with him when he died. That was the symbol to the gods that he 
was of the elect. Without it he must dwell forever with the genii 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 245 

of the lower world. So between priests and Manchu Emperors it 
has come about that the Chinaman and his queue are inseparable. 
Should the Manchu ever be banished he may cease to wear the 
queue. The Christian Chinaman often does, but it will be ages 
before the pigtail will cease to be the token of Chinese bondage to 
Tartar conquerors and Chinese evidence of certainty of heavenly 
reward. 

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CHINESE DUDE. 

China, like other countries, has her dude, and his habits are 
peculiar. Clothes and money make the European dude, but not 
so in China. To be a dude, a Chinaman must boast of an ancestry. 
To have any social prestige a family must date back one, two or 
three thousand years. Money may be of service and influence in 
some ways, but it plays no part in the Chinaman's social condition. 
It entitles him to no social consideration whatever. To be a society 
man in China costume is all important, but it must be inherited. 
Rare furs, embroideries, Oriental stones, especially fine bits of jade 
of rare tint, are handed down, just as the family plate is in Eng- 
land, to add lustre to a great name. On social occasions of great 
moment the Chinese dude arrays himself in the costume of his 
ancestors, in embroidered robes, in the richest furs, as sable and 
silver fox, and dons the invariable sign of grandeur- — a jade ring 
of rarest quality, a light sea green. 

The ring itself is about one inch wide and is worn on the 
thumb. The condition of the finger nails denotes rank, prestige, 
power. The dude allows his to grow about one inch and a half 
long, sometimes two inches. They often curl over like the talons 
of a bird, showing that the dude is above the pale of manual labor. 
The claw-like nails, the light green jade ring, the gorgeous em- 
broideries several generations old, the rich furs, assert his social 
rank. If not too exalted in rank the Chinese man of fashion goes 
to the playhouse for his chief recreation. If too high up in the 
social scale for such a journey, the players come to him and he 
enjoys his theatre at home. Unwritten law requires that the Chi- 
nese aristocrat must be expert with the bow and arrow, an accom- 



246 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 



plished horseman and a proficient gambler — no gambler, no dude. 
Gambling enters into every transaction of the man's life. In a 
restaurant, for instance, some game of chance is played with the 
cashier, to see whether the price of the dinner is to be twice the 

sum charged or whether the patron 
is to have it free. 

When the Chinese dude goes 
out for a fashionable promenade he 
is preceded and followed by a re- 
tinue of servants. In his hand he 
carries a little twig, upon which is 
perched a little brown bird which 
he occasionally tosses up in the air, 
sometimes as high as twenty feet. 
The bird circles above him , 
;,...... swoops down suddenly 

and pecks a seed from his 
lips. Then it flutters 
back to its perch for re- 
pose, twittering and con- 
tent. Despite this exter- 
nal grandeur, the Chinese 
: man of fashion knows 
nothing of cleanliness, 
hygiene, personal decency 
; as understood by the 
Westerner. 

The social position 
finger nails of a chinaman. of the Chinese woman is 

indicated in a far different manner from that of the dude. The 
distinctive mark of good society among the women is the small 
size of their feet, produced by various methods of bandaging. 
Lockhart refers to the introduction of this custom in the year 
925, but it must have spread very slowly, for no reference is made 
to it by Marco Polo or other mediaeval travelers. Now it is so 
rigorously enforced that everywhere throughout the northern 




ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 



247 



provinces, except in Pekin, all the women submit to the torture, 
from which the peasantry in the south and in Sechen are com- 
pletely emancipated. 

The Manchu ladies also, as belonging to the conquering race, 
are not required to conform in this respect to the national custom, 
although they imitate it by confining their feet in such small shoes 
that they are 
obliged to walk 
tiptoe, whence 
numerous ac- 
cidents and 



serious 
plaints. 



com- 
The 




feet are usual- m 

ly bandaged |§fl 

up at the age ^-^ 

of five or six deformed feet of Chinese ladies. 

and when once crippled in this way the unfortunate victim of 

fashion becomes almost absolutely helpless. She can lift no 

heavy weight, apply herself to no useful work, nor even walk 

straight, but is obliged to totter along with short quick step, 

balancing herself with her outstretched arms. Yet the rustic 

women seem to take their share of the field operations without 

apparent distress. 

CHINESE CHILDREN. 

The children of China differ ver}^ much from European child- 
ren in character. At school they never dream of causing a dis- 
turbance or of shirking a task. They show here characteristics 
which never leave them — national characteristics — docility, 
thoughtfulness, and perseverance. Grave beyond their years they 
are none the less bright and happy, neither choleric nor given to 
boisterous laughter. From their early years they seem fully con- 
scious of their dignity as civilized beings. The social duties of 
the nation, which is regarded as one family, resolve themselves 
into those of the child toward the parent. The whole moral system 
is based on filial respect. The great deeds of the son ennoble the 



248 ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

father and the whole line of his ancestry ; his crimes disgrace the 
father and all previous generations. 

In the funereal ceremonies of the Empire, especially of the 
father, custom requires the children to give public expression to 
their grief. The eldest son, chief heir and head of the family, or 
his first-born or adopted son, has to fix one of the three souls of 
the dead in the commemorative tablet of his virtues, burn incense 
to his shade, supply him with ficticious money, to render his journey 
easy, as well as clothes, horses, servants, boats, also of paper, and 
everything that the departed may require in the other world. The 
period of mourning lasts for three years, during which time the 
mourners must abstain from meat and wine and keep from public 
gatherings. 

Custom requires that the remains of the dead be brought to 
their native places. In many cases where this would be too ex- 
pensive for the removal of a single body, they wait until a sufficient 
number can be got together to form a large convoy. This accounts 
for the numerous temporary cemeteries and mortuary villages in 
the Empire with their funeral urns and coffins, decorated with em- 
blematic paintings resembling flowers, birds or musical instru- 
ments. Vessels are freighted by the friendly societies to bring 
back the remains of those dying in foreign lands. 

SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 

Every year in the month of May, the people, clothed in white, 
the color of deep mourning, journey to the graves and mortuary 
temples with fruits, flowers and other offerings. In these hallowed 
places there is no distinction of rank, age alone taking precedence. 
Long funeral rites are not usual in the case of children, bachelors, 
spinsters, illegitimate women, or slaves. The bodies of infants are 
often left by the banks of streams, a custom which has led many 
travelers to attribute the general practice, especially of infanticide, 
to the Chinese people. The Chinaman and European have few 
habits and customs in common. Hon. Wu Ting Fang, the 
Chinese minister at Washington, contrasts the social habits of 
the Chinese and Americans in the following : 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 241) 

" Since I have come to the United States I have learned demo- 
cratic ways and go abont unescorted, but if I were at home I should 
consider it necessary to be accompanied by servants. If going to 
a dinner party, I should be carried to my destination in a sedan 
chair on the shoulders of stalwart bearers. On arriving there I 
might reflect on how different a dinner party in China is from one 
in the United States. Instead of dressing for dinner, you might 
say we undress for it. We put on our finest garments for such 
occasions, but when we come to dine we remove the outer ones. 
Instead of washing before dinner, we Chinese perform our ablu- 
tions after the meal. Finger bowls do not satisfy us ; we demand 
spacious basins. Our servants wait upon us with soap and towels. 

NO WOMEN ARE PRESENT. 

"At the banquet no more than eight are seated at a table — the 
ideal number for conversation. No woman's voice is heard about 
the festal board. Carving is a lost art in China and one never sees 
the bird he is to eat skilfully dissected before his eyes, as so often 
happens in America. The meats are all cut up before they are 
brought to the table, and no such dangerous implements as knives 
are necessary." 

Again he says : 

" That the Chinaman places his surname first, while the 
American has his last ; that the Chinaman wears white for mourn- 
ing, and the American black ; that the Chinese women have big 
waists and little feet, while the American women have little waists 
and big feet ; that the Chinaman sits in a draft as a matter of pref- 
erence, while the American avoids it ; that one eats with chopsticks 
and spoons, while the other with knife and fork — these and a 
hundred other insignificant contrasts in the customs of every-day 
life indicate the kind of observations I am naturally making dur- 
ing my sojourn in the United States. But I realize that this anti- 
thesis is only skin deep. Human nature is the same in both cases, 
but expresses itself differently." 

The Chinese being the greatest gamblers in the world, it is 
not strange that their pawnshops should occupy a prominent place 



250 ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

in their social life. They are practically the outgrowth of the 
gambling evil. An ardent gambler will pawn his last bit of jewelry 
that he may continue his sinister habit. These pawn shops are 
the most conspicuous buildings in a Chinese town or city and are 
the ones which first attract the attention of a stranger. They are, 
in fact, the nearest approach to our modern sky scrapers to be 
found in China. 

They are usually built of brick, though sometimes of stone, 
and have massive doorways, small windows and a flat roof, 
the latter often heaped with stones. The stones are placed there 
to be used as weapons during an attack from burglars. This 
precaution is not unreasonable since the rich store of jewelry and 
clothing within is a strong temptation to the not over-scrupulous 
Chinaman. In spite of the fact that burglary is a capital offense, 
these burglaries are common and necessitate a high rate of interest 
being charged. 

PECULIARITIES OF PAWNSHOPS. 

The pawnshops of China do not correspond to the three-ball 
establishments in this country, but hold a highly respectable posi- 
tion on a level with the banks. They are owned by companies 
composed of prominent citizens who find them highly paying in- 
vestments. There are three general classes of pawnshops, having 
different rates of interest and employing various lengths of time 
for redeeming pledges. All of these regulations are strict and 
equitable. 

The rate of interest, however, is high, and is often 36 per cent, 
a year, so that unredeemed tickets are sold to scalpers if the owner 
of the property finds that he is unable to pay this before his goods 
are eaten up with charges. In these storehouses the Chinaman 
places his furs and winter clothing during the summer months and 
his thin silks and summer wear during the winter. The wealthy 
class also utilize these pawnshops to a great extent during the 
season of the tax collector to avoid further imposition of the heavy 
taxation imposed upon them. In case of fire the pawnshop pays 
the owner of the pledge in full, that is if the fire originates in the 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 251 

building. If it catches fire from an adjoining building, however, 
he is obliged to pay only half of the loss. 

There is a law in China which requires that twelve temples 
shall be erected in every town. The pagodas of these temples are 
usually more or less pyramidal in form, richly carved, painted or 
otherwise adorned and several stories in height. These pagodas 
are not always connected with temples. They were originally 
raised over relics of Buddha, or the bones of a saint, but are now 
built chiefly as a work of merit on the part of some pious person, 
or for the purpose of improving the luck of the neighborhood. 
They are from three to thirteen stories in height — always an odd 
number. These temples and pagodas are met everywhere through- 
out the Empire. 

EVERYBODY DRINKS TEA. 

Tea-drinking is a universal custom in China, and much has 
been written on the effects of tea upon the human system. Lo-Yu, 
a Chinese writer on the subject of its effects upon the natives of 
China, says : 

" It tempers the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassi- 
tude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsi- 
ness, lightens or refreshes the body and clears the perceptive 
qualities." 

It has been noted that the exhilaration that follows the mod- 
erate use of tea is not often followed by the depression which suc- 
ceeds the use of alcoholic stimulants. It sustains the natives under 
severe physical labor without causing subsequent exhaustion and 
collapse. Taken in excess it produces cerebral excitement, sleep- 
lessness and general nervous irritability. The tannin contained in 
it interferes with the flow of saliva and causes indigestion. It also 
impedes the free action of the intestines. 

The Chinaman has another habit as world-renowed as that of 
tea-drinking — opium smoking. This latter habit was introduced 
by England, and has become a national vice. They take to the 
habit greedily, and once it becomes confirmed, it is exceedingly 
difficult to cure, According to the testimony of Chinamen them- 



252 ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 

selves, the effects of opium smoking must be regarded as injurious 
to Health and destructive to all the better parts of a man's nature. 
The Chinaman has always been opposed to the introduction of 
opium, but it was forced upon him and he gradually became ad- 
dicted to its use. 

J In reading and writing the Chinaman begins at the right and 
'goes to the left. This habit is as ancient as the language itself, 
and corresponds with the Hebrew method of reading and writing. 
Letter writing is common, for the reason that in speaking one 
Chinaman may not be understood by another, while in writing he 
can be understood by any Chinaman. This is true of Japan and 
Corea. Letters written from Japan and Corea are clearly under- 
stood in China and vice versa. 

MEANING OF ANCESTOR WORSHIP. 

In explanation of the theory of ancestor worship so devoutly 
practiced by the Chinese, an educated Chinese resident in this 
country says : 

" In all countries parental love is recognized bylaw. In this 
country a father who assists in the escape of his son from the 
hands of justice cannot be punished, although another in his place 
would be considered as an accomplice. In China the feeling is 
stronger. We believe that the natural affection of the parent is as 
strong after death as it is before dissolution, and that the parent 
watches over his children and his children's children forever. At 
the same time we believe that the parent is moved after death by 
natural impulses. If the children disobey the will of the parent he 
will in time give his offspring over to punishment even as he would 
have them punished on earth for disobedience. Believing this, we 
endeavor to show the spirits of our departed ancestors that we have 
not forgotten them. Hence we hold festivals for the purpose of 
commemorating the virtues of the departed. 

"As an incentive to a lively feeling of the real presence of our 
forefathers in our home, we have carved from bone, or wood, or 
ivory, images of our ancestors and set them up in our houses. Be- 
fore these we endeavor to feel as though we were in the presence of 



ORIENTAL HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 253 

the departed. True, these figures may not be true images of our 
ancestors, but what of it ? It simply means that our artists have 
not reached a degree of proficiency where they can produce exact 
likenesses." 

At New Year's time the Chinese offer prayers and sacrifices to 
the gods to commemorate the memory of their ancestors and to 
secure blessings upon themselves for the ensuing year. Among 
the higher classes friends congregate and drink tea. This custom 
is more particularly observed in Eastern and Southern China. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Remarkable Cities of China. 

Pekin, the Sacred City— Shanghai and Its Trade— Shaohing of the Lowlands— Hang-Chew. 
Fu and Marco Polo— Tien-Tsin and Its Importance— Canton and the Pearl River- 
Hong Kong and the English— Exaggerated Town Population— Narrowness of Streets 
— Fire Departments — Police System. 

WHO shall describe the wonders of ancient Pekin when so 
mnch of its interior has never been penetrated by a white 
man ? The Mandarins pronounce the name as if it was 
spelled Peting or Betzing, the chief city of the province of Pe-Chi- 
Li. There is less known of Pekin and its inner life than of any 
other important city of eastern Asia. The name literally means 
" northern residence " and was given in opposition to Nankin which 
was once the " southern residence." Five hundred years ago an 
Emperor of the Ming dynasty gave to the city its present name, 
but only the scholars of the Empire know it by that title. 

The common people wending their way slowly through the 
narrow streets speak of it as Kin-cheng or " residence," literally the 
home of the Emperor and his court. The Mongolians gave it the 
name of Khan-Balik, or city of the Khans. This is the name 
which Marco Polo brought to Europe on his return from his trav- 
els. Standing on the summits of the summer palace within the 
walls of the city, the observer will note that Pekin is in the middle 
of a plain scarcely 120 feet above the sea level and but a little south 
of the last spurs of the Mongolian escarpment. Through the city 
flow two small streams which twelve miles distant empty into the 
Pei-Ho. Nearby are the rushing waters of the Wen-Ho which a 
strong embankment keeps from flooding the plains of the city. 
The area of Pekin is variously given at from sixteen to twenty 
thousand acres. But this space is not completely occupied. 

The residence and palaces of the Emperor and the home of the 

princes attendant upon him are surrounded by extensive gardens. 

Even the Chinese quarter is occupied by houses for a distance of 

only a little over a mile in the direction of from east to west. In 

254 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 255 

other parts of the city are extensive waste grounds, swampy tracts, 
ancient graveyards and cultivated fields. The two parks of the 
Temples of Heaven and Agriculture are maintained and near them 
. are many ruined structures of periods of time long since past. The 
population of the city has been variously estimated at from 1,500,- 
000 down to 450,000. The truth appears to be that there are about 
550,000 people within the walls. 

TWO CITIES IN ONE. 

Literally, Pekin is a city within a city. The northern portion 
which is in the form of a square and is the Tartar or Manchu part 
is divided from the southern portion by a high wall. This south- 
ern section is occupied by the Chinese. Until the sixteenth cen- 
tury the Tartar section was only a suburb, but when the Manchu 
princes began to take possession of the Empire they constructed a 
large earth rampart, faced with bricks, fifty feet high and flanked 
by square towers at intervals of 200 yards. The top of this ram- 
part is broad enough for carriage traffic. A moat separates the 
Tartar quarters from the wild country to the north. The Chinese 
town or section resembles a market place and here Chinese indus- 
try thrives in a manner not imitated by the imperial Manchu inter- 
lopers. The open spaces, or what might be called streets, are 
obstructed with carts and tents. Little foot-paths run in every 
direction. The dirty water of drains is used to sprinkle the streets 
and at one of the crowded cross roads the " headsman and his 
assistants are constantly occupied with their sanguinary duties of 
office." 

The Chinese section is considered to be superior to that of the 
Manchu town. Of course, the foreign legations are located as near 
to the Emperor's palace as possible and all the triumphal avenues 
are in this portion of Pekin. But despite this, the streets and the 
homes of the Chinaman proper are better kept and show more evi- 
dences of thrift. For generations after the coming of the Manchu 
dynasty the inhabitants of the two quarters lived apart but now the 
races mingle and the trade of the Manchu town is heavily monopo- 
lized by the Chinese. Many thousands of the followers of Mohammed 



256 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 



live within the city. They are artisans and workers in metal. 

The native Christians who reside there are engaged in the clock 

and watch trade taught them by the missionaries. 

The so-called " Yellow " quarter is in the center of the Manchu 

section of the city within an enclosure with four gates facing the car- 
dinal points. 
This is the 
second city in 
which stands 
the imperial 
palace, the 
only building 
in China faced 
with yellow 
porcelain. A 
large amount 
of the space to 
which the 
public is never 
admitted is oc- 
cupied with ar- 
tificial lakes, 
groves and 
avenues. The 
two famous 
temples of 
" Heaven and 
Agriculture " 
in the centers 
of the parks 

interior of a Chinese temple, showing their idols, bearing their 

names, are at the south end of the Chinese quarter. The Temple 
of Heaven stands on a terrace reached by marble steps. It is 
decorated with enamel, porcelains and woodwork. The prevailing 
colors used for decorative effect are red, blue and gold. This 
temple has a double roof. The Temple of Agriculture stands on 




REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 257 

a higher elevation than its companion and has three roofs. It is 
encircled by a forest of carved pilasters ornamenting balconies and 
steps. Near at hand is the field where the Emperor and his 
princes meet every spring to guide the ivory and gold plow through 
the soil while calling the blessings of heaven and earth upon the 
fruits of the land. This ceremony is not practiced with that regu- 
larity now that marked it before the troops of Europe first in- 
vaded Pekin. 

Just beyond the walls of the Manchu town are the Temples of 
the Earth, of the Sun and Moon. In these temples are celebrated 
the solemn rites of the national religion. Inside the ramparts 
near the Temple of Sciences stands the old observatory of the 
Jesuit missionaries with its curious bronze astronomic instruments 
of native workmanship, which is the finest known collection of 
Chinese bronzes. The Russian observatory stands at the north- 
east corner of the enclosure This observatory contains a valuable 
Chinese library. 

In the Lazarist mission is a rich natural history museum, 
formed by David Arm and. But the imperial library has been dis- 
persed to a large extent. Under the Min dynasty the government 
maintained schools in which were taught Siamese, Burmese, Per- 
sian, Tibetan and two dialects of the wild tribes of the southwest, 
Since the " opium war " the ministry have discovered that there 
are languages of more importance than those of Indo-China and 
Central Asia. In the government school attached to the foreign 
office young Mandarins are now taught English, French, German, 
Russian and Manchu. 

PEKIN AS A TRADING PLACE. 

Pekin is not as important a trading place now as in the time 
of Marco Polo, when " of silk alone a thousand carts entered every 
day of the year." The road between the capital, with its port of 
Tungchew on the Pei-ho, is still daily thronged with wagons, pack 
animals and wayfarers. The two cities are connected by a canal 
about fifteen miles long. This canal is used by junks, canning 
cargoes of opium, wine and other produce. 
17 



258 REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

Tungchew is usually crowded with craft, and at times forms a 
floating bridge all the way to Tien-Tsin. For three months dur- 
ing the year the navigation is blocked by ice. The traffic between 
Pekin and Shanghai is then carried on by the overland route. The 
only good roads from the capital are those running to the Summer 
Palace and southwestwards to the famous Luku-kiao bridge over 
the Wen-ho river. This structure gave way in the seventeenth 
century, but was restored by the Emperor Kang-hi, who adorned 
it with two elephants and two hundred and eighty lions in marble. 

PARKS OF GREAT BEAUTY. 

South of the capital is the park of Nanhai-tze. The park 
covers about eighty square miles within a fortified enclosure forty 
miles in circumference. Villages, cultivated tracts and military 
stations are scattered over these woodlands. The Yuangnnng-yuan 
is still a more famous park. Its name means " Splendid Garden." 
It is known to Europeans as the park of the " Summer Palace." 
This imperial residence was plundered by the troops of the allies 
in i860 after the Chinese army had been dispersed at Palikiao. 
They found in the interior artistic objects in jade, gold, silver, 
ivory, and lacquer. 

The troops distributed gold and silver ingots among them- 
selves, but it is supposed that the great bulk of the precious metals 
was concealed. Since that time most of the buildings have re- 
mained in ruins, the Empress Dowager having rebuilt only one 
palace for herself. Viewed from c he summit of Hiang-shan, a 
wooded hill about 1,000 feet high, Pekin presents a varied scene to 
the eye, with her gardens, their lakes, temples, bridges, bright 
pagodas. 

At the northern foot of these heights are the famous sulphur 
springs, long frequented by the Chinese and now visited by Euro- 
pean invalids. These waters lie on the route of the sanctuary of 
Miaofengshan. Here the monks show a spot where young men 
throw themselves down a precipice " through filial love," hoping 
by these means to secure long life for their parents. Most of the 
Buddhist monastaries in the Pekin neighborhood are ruins, their 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 259 

bronze and plaster statues being exposed to the sun and rain, and 
their walls disappearing under a mass of vegetation. The largest 
and most celebrated of these monasteries is that of Hoang-sze, or 
'* Yellow Convent." To the west is the Temple of the Great Bell, 
containing one of the largest bells in the world. It is nearly 
twenty-seven feet high and covered with 35,000 exquisitely chased 
letters, representing a complete volume of Buddhist liturgy. 

FAMOUS TOMBS NEAR PEKIN. 

The Pekin district abounds with large monuments, many of 
them being family tombs. They are mostly in the form of huge 
turtles with inscriptions on their carapace. The approaches to the 
burial places of the nobles are adorned with colossal effigies of lions 
in bronze or marble. Here are found the Portuguese and French 
cemeteries, containing the remains of Ricci, Verbiest, Amiot, 
Gaubil, Ger billon and other famous missionaries to whom we are 
indebted for a large part of our knowledge of China and its inhab- 
itants. Some twenty-four miles from Pekin, in a solitary amphi- 
theatre among the Tien-hu hills, are the tombs of the Ming 
dynasty. This amphitheatre is approached by a gorge terminating 
with a large marble portal. 

At the head of an avenue of marble statues representing twelve 
high officials, priests or warriors, and twelve pairs of animals, ele- 
phants, camels, lions, horses and the mythical unicorn, some kneel- 
ing, others erect, is the tomb of the Emperor Yung-le. The body 
of the Emperor lies at the end of a long gallery under the natural 
pyramid of the mountain. Near it is the temple where sacrifices 
are offered to the gods. This temple rests on sixty pillars of laurel, 
each forty-three feet in height and ten feet in circumference. The 
blocks of marble required for these imperial tombs are conveyed 
along specially constructed roads. They are placed on large trucks 
with sixteen wheels. Six hundred mules are required to draw 
these trucks. 

Tien-Tsin, whose name means " Fort of Heaven," is the sea- 
port of the province of Pechili, and also of the Mongolians and the 
Russian province of Transbaikalia. It is situated in a fertile dis- 



260 REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

trict on a navigable river at a point where several natural highways 
formed by the rivers of the interior come together. Owing to 
its foreign trade, it is one of the most important of China's cities, 
and has surpassed Pekin in population. The government granaries 
for the supply of the imperial capital are located here. It is also 
the salt depot for the whole of north China. Tien-Tsin became a 
treaty port in 1858. 

Vessels of the European type are now owned by the natives, 
besides their river junks. They also own numerous steamers 
which ply daily on the Pei-ho river above and below Tien-Tsin. 
Most of the Europeans who have business relations with Tien-Tsin 
are located in the settlement of Tzekhulin, a town of western ap- 
pearance, a few miles below Tien-Tsin. There are several build- 
ings in the city of Tien-Tsin of European style. A cotton spin- 
ning factory has been recently established. 

IMPORTANCE OF SHANGHAI. 

Shanghai is the nearest seaport to the Yang-tze-kiang estuary 
and has become the first commercial mart in the Empire. In 1842 
the English chose Shanghai as the location of their factories, as it 
was the outport of Suchew and the rich surrounding district, be- 
sides commanding the entrance of the great water highway which 
traverses the whole Empire from east to west. There were difficul- 
ties of soil and climate to contend with. The ground on which it 
stood had to be raised and consolidated, canals had to be cut, lagoons 
drained, the navigable channel dredged, and the atmosphere purified 
from its miasmatic exhalations. Most of these improvements have 
been successfully carried out, but a dangerous bar still separates 
the Yang-tze-kiang estuary from the Hoang-pu river, or river of 
" Yellow Waters," on which Shanghai is situated. The evil has 
been increased during the last ten years and vessels of deep 
draught do not ascend the Hoang-pu to the city. According to a 
local tradition Shanghai formerly stood on the sea-coast, from which 
it is at present twenty-four miles distant. It is much exposed to 
the " yellow wind,'' from the north and northwest, charged with 
the dust of the desert. 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 261 

The Tai-ping rebellion drove thousands to take refuge on the 
land ceded to foreigners, and when Suchew was destroyed in i860, 
Shanghai became the foremost city in the Empire. After the over- 
throw of the rebels the people returned to the interior and the 
number of native inhabitants fell from half a million to 65,000. 
Despite this fact, Shanghai became the chief depot for the distribu- 
tion of European imports throughout the Empire. The English 
concession enjoys the privilege of self-government. The territory 
ceded to the Americans to the north of the Suchew river was 
united in 1863 to the British municipality, which is occupied by 
over a hundred thousand natives, as well as by most of the 
French residents. 

Shanghai is the headquarters of five lines of river steamers, 
and owns forty coasting steamers. It is the only Chinese city 
which possesses dockyards where merchant vessels are built under 
the direction of European engineers. In 1879 a cotton-spinning 
mill, a tannery and other industries were established on the Euro- 
pean model. The steamers plying on the river receive their fuel 
from the coal mines of the Yang-tze-kiang. The coal from these 
mines is gradually replacing the foreign coal in Shanghai. The 
city possesses fine avenues, and broad macadamized roads radiate 
for six or seven miles round to the villas and country seats of the 
foreign and native merchants, but the government has not allowed 
these routes to be farther inland. Shanghai is connected with 
Pekin by telegraph and with Japan by submarine cable. This cable 
was finished early in the year 1882. Since 1858 the seat of the 
l " North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society" has been at 
Shanghai. 

HANGCHEW-FU, "THE NOBLE CITY." 

At the west end of the bay which bears its name is Hang- 
chew-fu, which commands the entrance of an old branch of the 
Yang tze-kiang river, forming a southern prolongation of the Grand 
Canal. It lies in a fertile district and has a pleasant climate. It 
was formerly capital of the southern Empire and withstood the 
attacks of the conquering Mongol for a long time. The title Kingtze 



262 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 



has been applied to it for centuries. Marco Polo visited it, and 
writes of "Quinsay," as he calls it, in terms of admiration inspired 
by no other city visited by him. He says : 

" Nothing astonished me more than this most noble city with- 
out fail the noblest and best that be in the world." 

Europe laughed at the details he gave in regard to Hang- 




A CHINESE BRIDGE. 

chew-fu. For he speaks of a circumference of ioo miles, 1,000,000 
houses, 3,000 baths, 12,000 stone bridges high enough for fleets to 
pass under, and each guarded by a company of ten men. The 
twelve working corporations are each stated to have had 12,000 
houses for their industries, and other travelers speak in like manner 
of " Quin say/ Oderico of Pordenone calls it " the largest city in 
the world," and others state that it takes three days to traverse it 
from end to end. In the seventeenth century, long after it had 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 263 

ceased to be the capital of the southern Empire, Martinus Martini 
gave it a circuit of ioo Italian miles, and even more including the 
vast suburbs. He adds : " You may walk in a straight line for 
fifty li (the Chinese mile) through the place without seeing any- 
thing but houses closely huddled together." 

Hangchew-fu still has a circumference of twelve miles, beyond 
which the ruins of temples and palaces are seen everywhere. The 
mediaeval writers speak of a great lake (Si-hu) as being enclosed 
within the city. This lake now lies beyond the ramparts. The 
delightful scenery of this lake, together with the genial character 
of the people, has earned for Hangchew-fu the title of the " Chinese 
Paradise." A proverb frequently quoted runs : 

" Heaven is above ; Suchew and Hangchew-fu are below." 
The city has suffered much from the Tai-ping rebellions, its 
population having materially decreased since the middle of the 
century, The Mohammedans are more numerous here than in 
any other city on the coast. 

HYDRAULIC WORKS AT SHAOHING UNRIVALLED. 

Shaohing, on the south side of the bay, is the commercial and 
industrial centre of one of the richest and most densely populated 
lowland region in the Empire. The hydraulic works constructed 
here to reclaim, protect and drain the land are elsewhere unrivalled. 
Among them is the longest viaduct in the world, and consisting of 
about 40,000 rectangular arches supporting a roadway six feet 
broad, protected by a graded parapet. The material for the con- 
struction of the viaduct has been obtained from the quarries of 
Mount Taying, lying between the cities of Ningpo and Yuyao. 
These quarries are the largest in China. The viaduct which termi- 
nates eastwards in the fortress defending the city of Tsinhai, at the 
mouth of the Yung-kiang, or river of Ningpo, dates from a period 
when the whole country was a vast saline marsh. It has been so 
solidly built that it is still used as a highway and towing path for 
the neighboring canal. 

x\n enormous embankment along the shore reclaims a large 
fertile tract. When this embankment was erected is not known. 



264 REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

Seawards it is faced with dressed stone slabs bound together with 
iron clamps, and stretches from the Hangchew-fu estuary to the 
Ningpo river. Shaohing, the capital of this unhealthy region, is a 
decayed place, although still distinguished by the culture of its 
inhabitants. Some two thousand years ago it was the capital of a 
state which comprised all the southeastern lands from Kiang-su to 
Canton. Outside the wall a tomb is shown, which is said to be 
that of Emperor Yu. Here the perfumed liquor known as "Shao- 
hing wine " is prepared. It is extracted from a species of rice. 
This wine has been compared by travelers to Sauterene. 

THE CITY OF CANTON. 

Canton, one of the principal commercial cities of the Empire, 
and capital of the province of Kwang-Tung, is situated about mid- 
way between the two heads of the delta formed on the west b}' the 
united Si-kiang and Pe-kiang rivers and on the east by the branches 
of the Tung-kiang. From this point junks reach the two estuaries 
by the shortest channels. Of these the broadest and deepest, rami- 
fying eastwards, is the Pearl river, known as the " River of Canton." 
The Chinese name for Pearl river is " Chu-kiang," which name is 
supposed to be derived from that of Fort Hai-chu, or " Pearl of the 
Sea," better known as the " Dutch Folly," that is, the " Dutch 
Fort," from Fo li, the Pigeon English pronunciation of the word 
fort. But even by this channel large vessels are not able to reach 
Canton and junks of deep draught stop eight miles lower down at 
Hoang-pu (Whampoa). 

The Chinese records mention Canton as far back as the fourth 
century before the vulgar era. At that time it bore the name of 
Nanwu-cheng, or u Warlike City of the South," which name was 
due to its frequent revolts. In 250 a.d. it succeeded in expelling 
the imperial forces and maintained its independence for half a 
century. At the beginning of the tenth century it became the 
capital of a separate state, paying an annual tribute to the Empire. 
Sixty years afterwards the founder of the Sung dynasty again con- 
quered it. In 1684 it rebelled against the Manchus in the name of 
the Ming dynasty, and held out for over a year. During the siege 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 



265 



700,000 of its inhabitants perished, and being given up to plunder 
the city became a mass of ruins. 

ANTIQUITY OF CANTON. 

In the local dialect Canton is called Kwangchew-fu, or Shen- 
cheng. At the present time it is one of the most thoroughly Chi- 
nese cities in the Empire. It is supposed to exceed all the other 
imperial cities in 
population, as it 
does in the origin- 
ality of its appear- 
ance and fidelity to 
the national types. 
It lacks the broad 
dusty streets and 
tent-shaped houses 
of Pekin ; it pre- 
sents no such im- 
posing aspect as 
Shanghai with its 
European quarters, 
houses, quays, and 
shipping ; nor has 
it had to be rebuilt 
in recent times like 
Hangchew-fu. As 
Canton was four 
hundred years ago 
it is to-day — a unique city approached through a floating quarter 
where all kinds of craft are anchored, disposed in blocks like the 
houses ashore, with intervening water streets crowded with traffic. 

Canton proper lies on the north side of the Pearl river, is en- 
closed by a rampart and divided by another enclosure into two 
cities. Within these spaces the population is crowded together in 
narrow streets, lined by rickety houses. In many instances mats 
are stretched across allevs from house to house. Canton is one of 




A CHINESE MERCHANT OF CANTON. 



266 REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

the most insalubrious places in China. There are 8,000 blind 
and 5,000 lepers among its inhabitants, while the general type 
of features is repulsive to the European eye. The wealthiest of 
the European settlers are the English. Their quarters are on the 
island of Shamin and they have converted them into a city far 
more healthy than the native town. They have provided promen- 
ades, shady avenues and a racecourse. The site of this " conces- 
sion " is at the diverging point of the two deepest branches of the 
Pearl river. 

Canton is the great mart for the silks of the south. Nearly 
all of the trade of the city is in the hands of native merchants, the 
Europeans of Shamin being mere brokers. Before Lord Amherst's 
mission of 181 5, English commerce was barely tolerated, and at 
that time there were no capitulations as with Turkey, nor any trea- 
ties as among the different European states. When intercourse 
was permitted with the West, Canton became one of the foremost 
cities enjoying foreign trade. 

HONG KONG AND ITS POPULACE. 

Since 1841 the neighboring island of Hong Kong (Hiong-kong 
or Hiang-kiang) has beh nged to the English. This little granite 
and basalt island is some thirty-three square miles in extent. 
When first occupied it had a fishing and agricultural population of 
about 2,000 people. Now the city of Victoria (Kwantailu) stretches 
along the north coast about one and a half miles ; large villages 
have sprung up at the outlets of all the valley, while every head- 
land is crowned with country seats or handsome buildings. A fine 
roadway winds up to the culminating point of the island. During 
the early days of settlement Victoria had the reputation of being 
an unhealthy place ; now it has become a sanatorium for the Eng- 
lish residents of the east. 

Hong Kong lies within the range of the typhoons which sweep 
the Chinese waters. In 1874 one of these storms blew down over 
a thousand houses, wrecked thirty-three large vessels, with hun- 
dreds of junks and destroyed several thousand lives. Hong 
Kong's populace presents a great variety of types. The Parsees, 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 



267 



the most respected of all strangers, are thoroughly domiciled in 
these waters, where their traditional probity has secured them a 
friendly welcome at all times. Hindus of every branch, Malays 
Burmese, Polynesians, and half-caste Portugese have also been 
attracted to the island, while the bulk of the population consists of 
Chinese. Much of the European merchandise for Shanghai, Han- 
kow and Tien-Tsin is forwarded to 
Hong Kong. 

A city of interest in China at 
the present time is Taku, meaning 
" Great Fort," which is situated at 
the mouth of the Pei-ho river, about 
fifty miles from Tein-Tsin by water, 
and thirty miles by rail. The rail- 
way terminus is Tongku on the op- 
posite bank. The width of the river 
here is about half a mile. The na- 
tive village consists merely of a col- 
lection of hovels of mud mixed with 
finely chopped straw. Oiled paper 
pasted on lattice work takes the 
place of glass in the windows. Drain- 
age is out of the question and during 
the summer heat the effluvium is 
unbearable. One main thoroughfare 
runs through the village and is the 
only approach to anything in the 
nature of a street. 

About one and half miles east commander of the taku forts. 
of Taku is a settlement of British, Americans, and Germans who 
carry on the occupation of pilots. The navigation of the Pei-ho 
river and the Gulf of Pechili is entirely in their hands. Like 
the native huts the European houses are built of mud, but on a 
more elaborate scale, being fitted with verandas. These dwellings 
are cool during the summer and correspondingly warm during 
the winter. 




268 REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

AMOY, THE IMPORTANT MISSION POINT. 

The port of Arnoy is situated on an island off the coast of the 
province of Fu-kien and almost opposite the center of the island of 
Formosa. The Chinese name for the city is Hai-meu, or the " gate 
of the sea." It is built on rising ground at the foot of mountains 
which rise to three or four thousand feet in height and overlooks 
one of the finest and most spacious harbors in the world, which lies 
in the crescent between the island city and the mainland opposite. 
In character and natural location it greatly resembles the British 
port of Hong Kong. 

Arnoy is the port of the city of Chang-chou-fu, which lies on 
the mainland a short distance up the Lung river. Its population 
is about 150,000 and in early years its merchants were noted as the 
most enterprising of China, but its trade has been so oppressed by 
unjust taxation that it had greatly declined. It was captured by 
the British in 1841, during the opium war, and was made an open 
port by the terms of the treaty concluded at Nankin the following 
year. 

Being one of the treaty ports, it became a great central station 
for the work of Protestant missions, and is at the present time one 
of the most important mission points in China. The natives of the 
city are noted for their friendliness toward foreigners. It was the 
first city in China to have a flour-mill, but this was killed by official 
oppression. The likin, or transit taxes, are heavier about Arnoy 
than any other port of China, and as a result no foreign goods ever 
get farther than twenty miles into the interior. 

Travelers in China discredit the statistics showing the enor- 
mous town population of the Empire. A prominent Chinese 
traveler says : 

" In traveling through China the circumstance that produced 
the deepest impression was the density of town population. The 
usually conceived picture is one where the population has grown 
to the actual limits of the town. While the portion of China I 
inspected is small as compared with the whole, nevertheless the por- 
tions were certainly typical and contain the great centers of popu- 




KU-LANG-SU, AMOY, CHINA, ASIATIC CENTER OF THE 
BAPTIST MISSIONARIES 



I 




HOUSE BOATS AT TIEN-TSIN, OCCUPIED BY CHINESE WHO WILL NOT 
LIVE IN HOUSES DESECRATED BY THE PRESENCE OF FOREIGNERS 



REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 269 

lation. From what I saw I am forced to the belief that the density 
of the town population of China is greatly exaggerated. When 
one considers that the Chinese people are vain, and conceited, and 
invariably make over-statements in regard to any subject under 
consideration; when one recalls the average ignorant local official 
from whom, in the first place, figures concerning population must 
originate, the figures of population are set aside as almost unworthy 
of serious consideration." 

NARROW STREETS. 

This seems to voice the opinion of the greater number of trav- 
elers through China in regard to the town population. Another 
traveler says : 

" The foreigner gets his idea of the overcrowding of China by a 
cursory trip through the streets of a thoroughly Chinese city like 
Canton. These streets are narrow, being but from eight to twelve feet 
wide, and are consequently crowded, but he must remember that the 
widest one of Canton's business streets is narrower than a single 
sidewalk in New York, and that any of the latter city's thorough- 
fares carries many times more people than any of Canton's streets. 
Where Western influence has been felt, as in Pekin, the streets are 
wide and often dusty, but the old Chinese towns have the narrow 
streets above described." 

Elisee Reclus says : 

" There are doubtless many large cities in China, such as 
Canton, Hankow, Changchew, Fu-chew, Tien-Tsin and Pekin ; but 
even these only take the second rank compared with London, or 
even with Paris." 

The police system of China is poor. The night watchman 
who flourishes everywhere from Pekin down to the small cities in 
the interior, instead of going his rounds stealthily, so as to detect 
thieves, if there are any, equips himself with a bamboo rattle and 
a tinkling metal cymbal which he beats as he goes. In the still 
hours of the night it is perfectly easy to tell exactly where he is 
and when he will pass in return to a given point. The theory is 
that his fiendish weapons of noise strike terror into the hearts of 



270 REMARKABLE CITIES OF CHINA. 

all evil-doers. Each province is divided into various divisions, 
these divisions are subdivided into prefectures and sub-prefectures, 
each division and subdivision being in charge of different officers 
and his assistants, all responsible to the Mandarin for the peace 
and order of his community. The Mandarin is responsible to the 
Viceroy, who in turn must report to the Emperor the condition of 
the province. 

In a country like China, where bamboo is used so extensively 
for building purposes, the houses are liable to the risk of fire. 
They are supposed to have an average existence of about six years. 
At the first signal of alarm it is the endeavor of the people to carry 
off the most costly objects to the nearest warehouse erected for such 
contingencies. It is next to impossible to save these buildings, 
once they catch on fire, in so many instances the fire fighters being 
obliged to carry water from neighboring streams. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Waterways Constructed by Man. 

The Grand Canal— The River of Transports — Building of Great Bridges — Disappearance oi 
the Yellow Sea— The Yellow River— Ravages by Changing Waters — Necessities for 
Water Routes — The Rivers of Shantung — Fighting the Floods — Character of Shipping 
—Opening Great Drains- Loss of Human Life. 

CHINESE engineering science built the Grand Canal and long 
before the Empire was even partially understood by Euro- 
pean travelers, this work of human industry had attracted 
world-attention and become famous. Compared with the Man- 
chester canal or the Sanitary District canal of the city of Chicago, 
it is not such a wonderful work. But when it is understood what 
difficulties were encountered in its building and the limited re- 
sources of the people who undertook the work, it becomes one of 
the wonders of man. Engineers have called attention to the fact 
that it is not a cutting like so many foreign works of a similar 
nature carried by a series of locks over extensive tracts at different 
levels. The Chinese engineers in building the canal simply made 
use of a long series of abandoned water courses, lakes and swamps, 
which they connected together with short and artificial channels. 

For this reason the canal, when viewed near at hand, presents 
more the appearance of a winding river whose width is inconstant. 
Marco Polo returned to Europe to tell his admiring hearers that 
the Emperor, Kublai Khan, at the end of the thirteenth century ? 
by imperial decree and a liberal use of such engineering talent as 
he could find, created the Un-Ho or " River of Transports " as it 
was named. The Emperor and engineers did this by connecting 
river with river, lagoon with lagoon and swamp with swamp. It is es- 
timated that at the time of the starting of the Grand Canal something 
like 75,000 laborers were daily employed in making the artificial 
connections. They dredged, they threw up embankments, they pro- 
tected the exposed sections from the wrath of the winds and incurred 
an expense far greater than if foreign methods could have prevailed. 

271 



272 WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 

Extensions of the canal were made and branches were con- 
structed, and for a number of centuries it was the main ave- 
nue for commercial transportation of the Empire. The canal 
was fed by the Hoang-Ho, the Wan-Ho and other streams from 
the Shantung province. Emperor after emperor made improve- 
ments upon it. Constant dredging was necessar}^ Not until the 
introduction of steam and water travel did the canal cease to have 
a commercial importance. To-day continuous travel over it is im- 
possible. In many parts the waterway is so clogged and choked 
up with debris and alluvial deposits that a passage-way for vessels 
cannot be found. But 200 years ago the canal carried over 50,000 
small and large craft of Chinese construction to and from the great 
commercial marts along its banks. The canal in its full length, 
and when it was most used, from the Hoang-Ho or Yellow river, 
started at about the vicinity of Tsao-chau, and ran southward and 
eastward to the waters which irrigate the country in the vicinity 
of Shanghai. That European engineers may yet take up its prac 
tically abandoned course and make a new great waterway is not an 

impossibility. 

THE YELLOW RIVER. 

A wonderful stream is the Hoang-ho, Hwang-ho, or Yellow 
river, sweeping through the province of Kan-su to the Shen-si, 
Shan-si and Ho-nan. The Yellow river is not only queen of 
waters in China proper, but occupies the same position to a con- 
siderable portion of Tibet. The total area drained by this savage 
stream exceeds 600,000 square miles — three times the area of the 
Republic of France, yet at that it is ranked as only the second 
river basin of the Empire, and there have been times in the past 
when it was merely a tributary system feeding the waters of the 
Yang-tse-kiang. 

To the natives, as well as to the travelers, the contrast 
between the identities of these two streams has always been an 
interesting subject of study. This is indicated by the natives 
having identified the twin streams with the two male and female 
principles of heaven and earth (Yang and Yin) who divide 
the world between them. The Hoang-ho is the female river 



WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 273 

devoted to the earth and designated by the name of Yellow which 
the inhabitants of the " Yellow lands " natnrally regard as pre- 
eminently the terrestrial color. The Hoang-ho rises in the unex- 
plored regions of the " Starry Lakes " and comes down from the 
highlands through great and awe-inspiring gorges. Swollen by 
rushing torrents from the Kuku-nor mountains, it comes to the 
edge of the central Asiatic desert, a large stream. There it leaps 
northward, following the Mongolian plateau and passing beyond 
China proper around the Ordos country and thence out to other 
districts through a gorge in the Ala-shai range. Here several 
branches spring from it, intermittently flooded, as the annual in- 
undations are large or small. A boisterous stream it is, which at 
one time discharging through the Pei-ho into the Yellow Sea, now 
shoots southward to parallel mountain chains. 

A QUEER CHINESE LEGEND. 

There is a Chinese legend which gives the reason for this 
change in its course. It is the story of the contest between King- 
Kung and Chwanchew for the empire of the world. In his rage 
King-Kung butted against Mount Puchiao which supports the pil- 
lars of heaven, and the chains of the world were broken. The 
heavens fell to the northwest and the world was rent asunder 
towards the southeast. Between the ranges thus created the river 
shot, and then it took a sharp bend toward the east, where it is 
joined by the Wei. The Wei is the largest tributary of the Yellow 
river, and is a great commercial stream even at this time. Both 
streams annually wash down large quantities of sedentary matter 
estimated in 1792 by Staunton at one-fiftieth for the whole volume 
of the entire stream. These deposits prove of great danger to the 
people residing upon the banks of the streams. Embankments 
are gradually formed by the deposits along the course of the 
stream, new channels form during the floods, and tremendous and 
ruinous overflows are the result. The Yellow river has been com- 
pared to the Nile and the Mississippi, because of this fact, since 
occasionally it flows at a higher elevation than the surrounding 
plain. 

18 



274 WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 

A BATTLE WITH THE WATERS. 

The engineering ingenuity of China has been exerted for cen- 
turies to overcome the floods of the Yellow river. A vast system 
of embankments has been erected on both sides to keep the stream 
within its bed during the rising of the waters. On the left side of 
the stream above Kaifund-fu the two main dikes run parallel. 
They are each seventy-two feet high and from 2,700 to 3,500 yards 
from the bank of the river. The space between the river bank and 
the dikes is cut up into rectangular sections by transverse mounds. 
The more exposed districts are thus divided into a number of inde- 
pendent tracts arresting the overflow and enabling the people to 
raise their crops in comparative safety. 

This system is maintained by 60,000 laborers constantly at 
work. The deposits of alluvia are rapidly increasing the height 
of the banks, and the difference in level between the river bed and 
the low-lying plains. The stream becomes more dangerous as the 
embankment increases in height. This danger may be overcome 
by the construction of canals to carry off the overflow to one or 
other of the cacustrine depressions in Kiang-su, north of the Yang- 
tze-kiang. 

In 1780 the Emperor Kienlong ordered a canal sixty miles in 
length to be constructed in fifteen months. This canal diverted 
half the discharge of the Yellow river into Lake Hangtzeu. In 
spite of all these precautions, great disasters are occasionally caused 
by the bursting of the dikes. The crops of whole provinces are 
swept away, many lives are lost and millions become a prey to 
famine and pestilence. As the Hoang-ho was called " The Rebel- 
lious River " in olden times, so is it true to that name to-day. In 
the northern part of the new course of the Yellow river, embank- 
ments have been erected on both sides for a distance of a hundred 
miles. But the river is constantly bursting its dikes, and it seems 
as if the Chinaman will never be victorious in his battle with the 
waters. 

It is a curious story as to how the Chinaman of the primeval 
days was forced to become a civil engineer. Naturally when he 



WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 275 

first entered the valleys of the Yellow river and the other great 
streams of what is now the Empire proper, his first thought was as 
to his subsistence. He brought sheep with him and they found 
herbage on which to thrive. But he needed more than mutton. 
His attention was directed to the production of silk and the raising 
of cereal crops. Often the soil on which he cultivated these in 
what is now Shantung or Pechili was not moist enough. It was 
rich but needed water. Therefore the Chinaman constructed small 
irrigating ditches extending from the great rivers through the 
fields. 

These ditches were harmless enough during the periods of ordi- 
nary rainfall. They distributed the water, the crops flourished and 
the people multiplied. It is told in the Book of Records that in 
one particular part of the new settlements the people in ten years 
increased from 10,000 to 500,000. Some came by birth and some 
by moving in from other lands. It was in these thickly populated 
districts that the dire necessity for an understanding of at least the 
rudiments of civil engineering was first felt. 

FLOODS COME TO DESTROY. 

There is no precise date in the Chinese records as to when the 
first great overflow of the rivers took place. It may have been 
4,000 years before Christ or 2,000 years before the Christian era. 
All that we know is that one came in that remote past and found 
the people unprepared. The Hoang-ho, the Yang-tze-kiang, and 
the other streams rose, great rains falling, and mountain banks of 
snow and ice thawing and adding their quantity to the already 
swollen streams. 

The banks of these streams are not high and precipitous like 
those of many American and European streams. Their waters are 
not held in, confined by walls of rock, like those of the Snake and 
Colorado rivers, or the Columbia. The banks are low and com- 
posed of a soft, crumbling earth which, when saturated with water, 
easily gives away and is carried off with the current. There are 
portions of the Missouri river where the character of the banks is 
an exact duplicate of those of the great rivers of China. The 



276 WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 

banks of the lower Mississippi that have so often given away and 
brought ruin in their doing so also resemble them. 

Consequently, when the floods came and the waters rose the 
banks gave way and the waters rushed over the fields and villages 
in great torrents. The irrigating ditches which had been so bene- 
ficial in the past now proved to be enemies of the people. They 
aided the rapid flow of the destroying waters. There was no warn- 
ing for the helpless inhabitants. Some one must have cried out 
that the waters were coming, then there was the rush of a great 
wave, the shrieks of the drowning, and the end. In a day a great 
inland sea had been created which did not recede for days and 
months. Worse still after the waters subsided the waters of the 
rivers did not seek their original beds but channelled out new 
courses, thus changing the whole topography of the country. 

The old stories say that half a million lives were lost in this 
first great overflow on to the cultivated lands. The people surviving 
stood aghast. In their first panic they inclined to the opinion that 
the flood was caused by the spirits of the air and water. They 
thought these spirits were angry with them. They could not im- 
agine what they had done to inspire such wrath, but they offered 
sacrifices to these spirits. The priests passed from body of people 
to body of people beating tomtoms, burning colored papers having 
strange inscriptions on them, and appealing in all possible manners 
to the spirits or gods to have mercy on them and punish them no 

more. 

THE SPIRITS DID NOT AID. 

This was all well enough as far as it went but it did not accom- 
plish what was desired. The waters decreased in quantity, the 
surface of the earth appeared once more, the people began anew 
the cultivation of the soil. They felt confident no second flood 
could come since so much had been done to appease the angry 
gods. And the years passed, the waters remained quiet and the 
people were content. 

Then again without warning a second flood came. First, the 
mountain streams flowing where the headwaters of the great Chi- 
nese rivers are become surcharged with melted snows. Then the 



WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 277 

rains fell in the plain land. It sufficed that in a single night the 
Yellow river rose and overflowed 450,000 acres of cultivated land 
on which were living 750,000 industrious, sober-minded people. 
Of these it is recorded that but a hundred thousand escaped, lived 
to tell the story of the water's inrush and the destruction wrought. 
The Book of Records gravely states " that this time the priests 
were unable to explain to the mystified people why the waters rose. 
The people demanded of them satisfactory explanations but they 
were dumbfounded. They could not point to a single popular 
offense on which an explanation might be hung. They were 
speechless. Then the people fell upon them and many were killed. 
Others left the country and traveled to new lands where their lives 
were less in danger. But their failure to explain and their flight 
served the people well in one way. They began to ask themselves 
if it were not possible that the spirits of air and water had not been 
responsible for the floods. If this were true, then it were possible 
that human agencies might be employed to prevent the recurring 
ravages of the streams." 

INVENTION OF THE DIKE. 

Ko appeared. If we may believe history he was a Chinaman 
who was many years ahead of his times. That he was a scholar 
there is no doubt, since he wrote many books some of which have 
survived him. He was the predecessor of the great engineer Yu. 
Ko suggested that if the floods were merely caused by too much 
water for the ordinary river channels to carry that perhaps these 
floods might be overcome by raising the banks. So far as we may 
know he was the inventor of the dike. He traveled through all 
parts of China and in many places either by ro}^al decree or the 
intercession of the people themselves he showed how dikes might 
be constructed. 

The people built them high and strong and for many years 
floods were uncommon. It was while engaged in this dike work 
that the people first approached an understanding of the use of the 
level and square. They really, also, without appreciating the fact, 
gained a faint idea of the fundamentals of trigonometry. But they 



278 WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 

had much yet to learn. Dikes will not endure unless cared for, 
constantly repaired. Dikes will not stand unless their foundations 
are properly built and their fundamental lines in harmony with 
the rush of the waters they confine. 

Lack of such knowledge on the part of the Chinese, their 
failure to repair their dikes, led to the destruction of the latter and 
new and more disastrous floods than the old ones. It was neces- 
sary to begin all over again and to master many things now trifles 
to the world of engineers. 

Even to this day despite the enormous dikes or embankments 
which protect many of the streams of China, the people have a 
serious lack of knowledge as to the best principles of civil engi- 
neering to be employed in preventing river floods. The early 
work of Ko has never been carried to its full end. 

The construction of the first dikes though led to an extensive 
development of the internal commercial interests of China. When 
liable to overflow the streams were hardly safe for navigators. In the 
breaking away of the waters junks and sailing vessels would be 
carried away never to be recovered. This danger was removed 
after the rivers were diked. It was safe now to moor vessels at 
almost any point. An increase in shipbuilding was noticeable at 
once. China was without good roads ; in fact, except in a few 
localities has never had good roads. 

WATER ROUTES FAVORED. 

Necessarily the people if they were to convey their produce 
and merchandise to new markets must favor the water routes. At 
the time of the birth of Christ it has been estimated that there 
were more than 100,000 small vessels plying the streams of the 
Empire and all engaged in profitable commercial trade. The pres- 
ence of the protecting dikes encouraged their construction. Steam 
was unknown and the vessels were moved by either rude paddles 
operated by hand or sails. 

Yet their number so continued to increase that on one stream 
where there were more than 10,000 of them in a traversed distance 
of 300 miles the name was given to the stream of " the river of 



WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 279 

transports." The children of fourteen and fifteen years of age were 
taught how to operate the boats. Hay was loaded upon them, garden 
produce, great bales of raw silk, tea, and other products. They 
journeyed as far as the Yellow Sea or the other inlets of the coast. 

As inland sailors the Chinese became among the most profi- 
cient in the world. They even ventured upon the high seas. Their 
craft sought the Philippine Islands and spread their sails in south- 
ern seas. Certain classes among them alienated from their home 
connections took to piracy on the waters and became the terror of 
the merchant marine for many centuries. That the Chinese navi- 
gators ever sought to discover new continents, or that they knew 
as Columbus did by dreams and legends that there were other 
continents, does not appear from their recorded history. 

The necessities for internal water routes in China were as great 
3,000 years ago as they are to-day. Emperor after Emperor en- 
couraged the creation of markets, of cities where annual fairs should 
be held. The people of the interior of the Empire could not reach 
these points unless by water route. Many of them were on streams 
that owing to their character were not navigable. It was found 
necessary to use upon these streams crude methods of dredging. 
Often it was found that great advantages were secured by connect- 
ing two streams with a short canal. 

PORTAGES OFTEN ARRANGED FOR. 

Where these canals could not be constructed portages were 
built. These were exceedingly peculiar. Some of them exist to 
this day and are commented upon by travelers. The country as a 
rule is quite flat between the streams. To portage successfully 
over this area (which means simply to get boats over on dry land) 
a great pile of earth was heaped up midway between the two streams 
by the natives. When this was high enough a runway was smoothed 
out on each side of it. When boats were being portaged these run- 
ways were kept wet. Oxen or the natives hauled the boats up one 
side and slid them down the other. That is the slow and tedious 
process by which boats were portaged hundreds of years ago and 
the manner in which they are portaged to-day. 



280 WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 

We have no evidence that any other nation has ever adopted 
so laborious a method of portaging. But it must be taken into 
consideration that the Chinese regard manual labor as the assigned 
lot of man and that it is the cheapest thing they possess. It mat- 
ters not to them how many men it may require to perform a certain 
task nor how long mere physical labor may be required to perform 
it. The men are there and the muscle and that is all there is to it. 
Where the western nations have bent all their efforts to securing 
labor-saving machinery the Chinaman has kept away from the 
same. He argues that every labor-saving machine means so many 
mouths in the Empire unprovided with labor or food and he has not 
desired the saving mechanisms. How he will be after he is better 
acquainted with other nations is another question. 

THE COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Commercial development in Shantung was very great in the 
early days. The province lies so favorably in its relation to the 
coast waters, there are so many sheltered valleys, the climate so 
equable, that the population rapidly drifted in there and formed com- 
mercial settlements. The streams were many and gave easy access 
to the different commercial marts. Garden cultivation was and is 
the great industry of the province. It is not strange that after five 
centuries of cultivation Shantung had a commercial trade with other 
parts of the Empire as great, if not greater, than the value of the 
commerce to-day through the St. Lawrence Valley. 

The characteristics of the streams in Shantung made it possi- 
ble for the natives to confine the waters without great engineering 
expense. The dike systems constructed were elaborate. Inunda- 
tions became less and less frequent with each generation, until to- 
day Shantung province is one of the most beautiful and finely cul- 
tivated in the Empire. While of late it has been the scene of many 
uprisings these have not yet served to destroy the commercial in- 
terests of the province and it is probable that after European influ- 
ence becomes extensive that the province will be made the foremost 
of the Empire. 

It has not only been necessary for the Chinaman to fight the 



WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 281 

floods but also to provide means for draining His lands. The amount 
of still water which has existed in the Empire in the past has been 
enormous in quantity. This still water has served to breed plague 
and pestilence. Often owing to its presence entire districts were 
uninhabitable. The people were forced to move away. The land 
was abandoned. The idea of drainage did not force itself upon the 
people until after centuries had passed. 

NECESSITY FORCES DRAINAGE. 

Time, though, and the plague and pestilence forced upon the 
people the idea of drainage. They began first the construction of 
small ditches. Afterwards these were enlarged. The still waters 
were carried into running streams. The waste soil was reclaimed. 
Where disease had prevailed cultivated gardens and fields appeared. 
The health of the people was materially improved and conditions 
for living made much better. 

It is extraordinary though, considering how intelligent the 
Chinese have been in many directions, that in the matter of natu- 
ral works they should have been so slow in progress It is true 
they carried through portions of the Chinese Wall with marvelous 
celerity. But other parts of it were centuries under way. Those 
who have examined into the matter state that it was at least eight 
centuries before practical drainage systems were introduced into 
Thina, and they were imperfect at that, and have been but little 
improved upon since. 

The first English and German engineers to attain any in flu. 
ence in the Empire saw the advantage to the people and themselves 
if improved methods of water transportation could be introduced. 
They also saw the necessity for better drainage systems. They 
urged that these reforms be not only advocated but undertaken at 
once by the Emperor and his advisers. They met with flat refusals. 
They were calmly told that the people did not care to advance in 
these directions. They were informed that they must not disturb 
old customs and were threatened with expulsion from the country 
if they persisted in their efforts. 

Later the Emperor was induced to approve of new drainage 



282 WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 

plans and did consent to have some of the rivers improved. The 
work was commenced but met with many interruptions. The 
people in some districts rose in arms and threatened the lives of 
the engineers. Native workmen could not be employed. They 
were afraid for their lives to be seen in the company of the engin- 
eers. Finally the better part of the work had to be abandoned. 
Prejudice could not be overcome at that time. 

LOSS OF LIFE BY FLOOD AND PESTILENCE. 

The Book of Records is replete with estimates of loss of life 
in China by flood and pestilence. These estimates must be taken 
with many grains of allowance. China has never had a complete 
and accurate census taken. Totals as to people have no real mean- 
ing there because nobody positively knows how many there are or 
just where they are. 

But some of the estimates from the records can be given 
simply to show what they are. The loss of life at different times 
has been : 

2500 B.C. By flood, 500,000 

2320 B.C. By flood and plague, 650,000 

1 89 1 B.C. By flood, 1,000,000 

26 B.C. By plague, 300,000 

650 A.D. By flood, 900,000 

1323 A.D. By plague, 200,000 

1657 A.D. By flood, 480,000 

These figures represent r early 4,000,000 of people and are but 
a partial representation of the amount of human life which has been 
sacrificed in China by lack of intelligence and non-observance of 
the simplest rules of living. A German authority of note — Wed- 
dells — has estimated that since the commencement of the Christian 
era the total loss of human life in China due to official neglect or 
official carelessness or to causes of nature which might have been 
prevented has exceeded 100,000,000 persons. 

The Chinese as architects at one time bore a high reputation 
— in the days when the western world had undertaken few great 
architectural works. This fame was largely due to the fact that 
western eyes when first introduced to the style of Chinese architec- 



WATERWAYS CONSTRUCTED BY MAN. 283 

ture prevalent had never seen anything so fanciful, so wide in 
departure from their own styles. The pagoda shapes, the effort to 
introduce flower ornamentations, the curious carvings, the strange 
idol heads, appealed strangely to western fancies. There was 
nothing substantial to the buildings, the amount of wood entering 
into their construction was enormous, they illy withstood the tests 
of time but to the eye they were exquisite. 

But that the Chinaman did not fully appreciate his own work 
was at times made manifest by the fact that he imported architects 
from Paris to design palaces and royal structures, to lay out broad 
avenues and fill them with flowers and fountains. The palaces of 
strictly Chinese construction in and about Pekin and the temples 
there have been lauded by many writers as unsurpassable. Now 
that troops from all parts of the world have approached these and 
examined them they do not appear to be so wonderful and could 
hardly be classified among the wonders of the world. 

IRON AND STEEL WORK. 

Within the last quarter of a century the Chinaman has taken 
some interest in building work that requires the use of iron and 
steel. Chinamen who have been educated in American or foreign 
colleges have returned home with wonderful stories as to what 
could be done with these metals. Sometimes they have been 
believed and sometimes they have not. But the fact that iron and 
steel works have been opened under the patronage of the govern- 
ment and that young Chinamen have been permitted to enter these 
and work under foreign teachers indicates that it will be but a 
short time before these factors have entered into the architectural 
work of China and lead to a more substantial class of structures 
coming into use. 

In canal work China offers to western engineers more opportu- 
nities than any other part of the world to-day with the exception of 
undeveloped Africa. When the existing disorder has been removed 
and a stable government inaugurated there can be no doubt but 
that a system of internal improvements will start within the 
Empire which will revolutionize present conditions. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Towering Mountain Peaks. 

Some of the Highest Peaks in the World Discovered — The Kuen-lun Range — The Gold 
Mountains — Mount Kailas- The Four Sacred Rivers -The Kuku-Nor— The Little 
Five Crested Mountain — The Tapei-shan— Monks in the Ranges — Miners and Their 
Life— Dangerous Trails — The Glaciers. 

SOME of the great mountain peaks of China are: 
Tibetan range, 23,000-24,000 feet. 

Altin-tag or Gold Mountains, 13,000 " 

Gyakharma, South Tibet, 20,800 " 

Mount Kailas, Tibet, 21,700 " 

Mount of Buddha, Tibet, 11,580 " 

The Turugart, Turkestan, I:[ »75 " 

The Terekti, Turkestan, 12,800 " 

Poplar Pass, Turkestan, I °,45o u 

Kuku-nor, Mongolia, 10,000-14,800 " 

The White Mountains, Mongolia, 10,000 " 

Long White Mountain, Manchuria, 10,000-12,000 " 

Lo-shan, China proper, 3,55° " 

The Tapei-shan, China proper, 12,000-13,000 " 

The Five Peaks, China proper, 11,600 " 

Ga-ra, or King of Mountains, China proper, 20,000 " 

Dragon of the Snows, China proper, 15,000 " 

The Seven Nails, China proper, 19,000 " 

Travelers who have been permitted to see the great mountain 
ranges of China have vainly endeavored to completely describe 
their majesty and beauty. Popular thought for many years held 
to the opinion that the striking ranges of the Empire were solely 
in the Tibetan country and that the Empire proper was merely one 
great plain. Late books of travel and manuscripts of geographers 
are correcting this false idea. The Empire proper contains many 
peaks of note and it is believed by some explorers that elevations 
may yet be found of greater altitude than the recorded ones of the 
284 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 285 

Himalaya. The famous Kuen-lun range forms part of the conti- 
nental backbone of Asia and separates Tibet from the Tarim basin. 
The length of this range is estimated at 2,400 miles, but it is 
broken by many passes and displacements. The name Kuen-lun 
literally means the " unillumined," or the mountain of cold and 
gloom, synonymous to the Tartar name which designates the range 
as that of the "Dark" mountains. The exact elevation of the 
Kuen-lun range has never been determined. Some geographers 
estimate that a number of its peaks reach a height of 23,000 feet. 
The Gold mountains, or Al tin-tag, which shoot off from the Kuen- 
lun have an elevation of about 13,000 feet. Ice and snow are not 
so common in this range as in the Himalaya, although Chinese 
travelers have written that there are real glaciers in its eastern sec- 
tion, as well as along one of the many valleys. The defiles in the 
range are of enormous depth, some of them great gashes from 
whose bottoms one looks up to openings two, three and four thou- 
sand feet above. 

MOUNT KAILAS, THE BEAUTIFUL. 

Mount Kailas is part of the connecting link between the Him- 
alaya and the Tibetan plateau. Its lofty crest is worshiped by all 
living Hindus. Pilgrimages are made to its base by the faithful 
annually. Great rivers spring from its sides. Fresh water and 
salt water lakes are met in close proximity. The bluffs are covered 
with the little houses of pilgrims, many of whom reside for months 
in the terrible solitude of the spot. The Ganges is supposed to 
have formerly had its source in this region. Great battles have 
been fought on the heights. In 184 1 the Chinese here defeated the 
Dogras of Kashmir and drove them into Little Tibet. Here is a 
beautiful river 14,600 feet above the sea. Terraces rise high at 
similar elevations. In the gorges a few inhabitants of the moun- 
tain region have built their homes. 

Sarthol, or the land of gold, is in this section of China and 
Tok-yalung, one of its towns is said to be the highest place on the 
globe inhabited throughout the year — having an elevation of 16,900 
fee*" above the sea, or 650 feet above Mont Blanc. The elevations 



286 TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

of some of the other towns are tremendous. Tadum is 14,000 feet 
up the mountain wall. Janglaeheh is 13,850 feet above the sea, 
Digarchi is 11,730 feet high, Lassa has an elevation of 11,580 feet 
and " has for the last 1,200 years been the most hallowed spot in 
eastern Asia.'' It is the capital of Tibet and the religious metro 
polis of the Buddhist world in the Chinese Empire. The name 
Lassa means " Throne of God " and the Mongolians call it " the 
eternal sanctuary." There are 20,000 priests on this mountain 
height. 

The towns and villages in the neighborhood of Lassa derive 
their importance from their monasteries. The monastery of De- 
bang, four miles west of the city, is said to have between seven and 
eight thousand lamas, or priests. Thirty miles northeast of Lassa 
is the Sera monastery, containing five thousand five hundred in- 
mates. In fact Tibet supports a whole nation of monks. 

Kuku-nor is the mountainous region stretching for some 120,- 
000 square miles to the northeast of Tibet. It is often included in 
Tibet, but is quite distinct from that country. It depends politic- 
ally upon the Emperor of China and had important commercial 
relations with the province of Kansu. A triple mountain barrie'r 
separates the Kuku-nor basin from the inhabited regions of Tibet. 
The natural slope of the land is towards the northwest; that is, 
towards the Gobi and the Mongolian domain. Yet this land of 
lofty plateaus, closed basins and difficult mountain ranges cannot 
be regarded as belonging to the same natural division as the Gobi 
wastes, or the cultivated plains of Kansu. 

THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS. 

In Mongolia the snow-line of the Altai mountains is about 
8,700 feet or 9,000 feet, altitudes reached by few of the northern 
crests. The southern slopes of the Altai mountains have a rela- 
tive lower elevation owing to the elevation of the Mongolian plains. 
In this region of Central Asia the most humid atmospheric currents 
come from the Polar sea. Hence the rain-bearing and fertilizing 
winds blow from the northeast. These winds discharge their 
moisture on the northern slopes of the Altai, so that those facing 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 287 

Mongolia are mostly destitute of vegetation, In some places the 
contrast between the two sides is complete — dense forests on the 
north, mere scrub and brushwood on the south. The two chief 
ranges branching into Mongolian territory are the Ektag Altai and 
the Tannu-ola. Some of the crests of the former rise above the snow- 
line. Hence its name, Ektag, means " White Mountains/' Pota- 
nin explored this range beyond the meridian of Kobdo, and found 
that some of the peaks attained an altitude of 10,000. The Olon- 
daba Pass over these mountains is 9,400 feet high. 

SOME OF THE HIGHEST SUMMITS. 

The Shan-alin, the Changpei-shan, or " The Long White 
Mountain," of the Chinese, is the true main range of Manchuria. 
It derives its name from its limestone rocks and snowy crests. 
Some of the highest peaks attain elevations of 10,000 and 12,000 
feet, thus rising considerably above the snow-line. The system is 
practically of volcanic origin, and in its central section is an old 
crater said to be filled by a lake enclosed in rocky walls over 2,600 
feet high. The Manchu poets sing of the Shan-alin as the sacred 
home of their forefathers, and in their eyes it is the fairest land in 
the world. 

In the highlands comprised between the gorges of the Pei-ho 
and Wen-ho rivers, which water the Pekin district, scarcely any 
summits reach an elevation of 6,700 feet. South of the Wen-ho 
many rise to the height of 8,000 feet and upwards. Here is found 
the famous Siao-Utai-Shan, or " Little Five-Crested Mountain." 
According to travelers it attains an altitude of 12,000. 

About the head streams of the Hoang-ho river, extensive ranges 
form the water parting between the Hoang-ho and Yang-tze-kiang 
basins. The main range, which may be regarded as an eastern 
continuation of the Keun-lun, is separated from the Kuku-nor 
highlands by the deep gorge of the upper Hoang-ho. South of 
Lanchew-fu this range takes the name of Siking-shan. It is broken 
here by the valley of the Tao-ho, an upper affluent of the Yellow, 
or Hoang-ho river. East of this point its snowy peaks stretch 
away to the south of the valle}/ of the Wei-ho. Here it is known 



288 TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

as the Tsing-ling, or " Blue Mountains." In the upper valley of 
the Han this section is crossed by passes practicable throughout 
the year for mules. 

The pass chosen by the naturalist Armand David in the winter 
of 1873, is 6,300 feet high, and runs along the west side of the 
famous Tapei-shan, whose snowy crest has an extreme elevation of 
from 12,000 to 13,000 feet, while a mean altitude of 6,500 feet has 
been assigned to the main range. In its central section the Tsing- 
ling consists of granites and old schists, and is difficult to cross. 
The Tsing-ling Blue mountains, like the Pyrenees, form a parting 
line between two vegetable and animal domains. The Funiu, an 
eastern continuation of the Blue Mountains, attains an elevation of 
over 6,500 feet in places, but its mean height scarcely exceeds 
2,600 feet. 

-FIVE PEAKS," THE VENERATED MOUNT. 

Parallel with the Tsing-ling other ranges run north of the 
Wei-ho valley, but they are intersected by ridges running south- 
west and northeast. Northeast of Lanchew-fu some of the peaks 
take the name of Siwe-shan, or " Snowy Mountains." The ranges 
bordering the south side of the Ordos steppe continue east of the 
Hoang-ho through Shan si. Here the " Western Mountains," from 
which the province of Shansi takes its name, run in a northeasterly 
direction, and the whole region rises in successive terraces from 
the Honan lowlands to the Mongolian plateaus. Several parallel 
basins are thus formed in which the streams flow until they find a 
breach through which they reach the plains. 

One of the ridges skirting these basins is the Siwe-shan, or 
" Sierra Nevada," of Shansi. Towards its northeast end are several 
peaks venerated by the natives. The most frequented of these 
peaks is the Utai-shan, or '"Five Peaks," with an altitude of 11,600 
feet. As many as three hundred and sixty temples are said to 
stand on its slopes. Many of these temples are imposing struct- 
ures, and one is said to be built of pure copper. According to 
the popular belief those who are buried here are insured a happy 
transmigration. 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 289 

Many high peaks are found in the Sechuen highlands. The 
ranges of the eastern Tibetan frontier are supposed to be the re- 
mains of a plateau gradually worn by the action of ice and run- 
ning waters into parallel ridges. The river beds in this region lie 
at elevations of from 8,000 to 10,000 feet above the sea level. The 
great trade route leading from Lassa through Batang to West 
China has an elevation of 11,000 feet between those two towns. 
Three passes on this route attain a height of nearly 20,000 feet. 
These passes are dreaded by travelers on account of the rarefied 
atmosphere. The Kinsha-kiang, Yalung and Min rivers are separ- 
ated by ranges whose summits have been fixed by Gill as rising 
to between 14,000 and 16,000 feet. 

GLACIERS FROM BOUNDLESS SNOW-FIELDS. 

The Nenda, or " Sacred Mountain," east of the upper Kinsha- 
kiang valley, is 20,500 feet high and sends down in all directions 
vast glaciers from its boundless snow-fields. With its spurs it 
covers the length of a whole day's march, during which the blue 
glint of the ice on its upper slopes remains constantly in view. 
East of the Nenda rises the scarcely less elevated peaks of Surung. 
East of the Yalung the crests of another range running parallel 
with the Surung rise above the snow-line, and one of them towers 
some 4,000 or 5,000 feet above all its rivals. This is the Ja-ra, or 
" King of Mountains," and Gill describes that he "never saw one 
that better deserved the name." He adds : 

" Never before had I seen such a magnificent range of snowy 
mountains as here lay stretched before me, and it was with diffi- 
culty I could tear myself away from the sight." 

The range culminating with the Ja-ra is connected northwards 
with the highland region, forming a continuation of the Bayau- 
khara, and here numerous peaks exceed Mont Blanc in altitude. 
Armand David thinks that among them summits may yet be found 
rivaling those of the Himalayas. The best known at present are 
the Ngomi-shan, ascended in 1879 by the missionary Riley ; the 
Siwelung-shan, or " Dragon of the Snows;" the neighboring "White 
Cloud," 14,000 to 15,000 feet, the "Seven Nails," a seven-peaked 
19 



290 TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

pyramid, 18,000 to 20,000 feet, according to Gill ; farther north the 
Shipangfang, apparently about the same height, with a side pass 
between the two tributaries of the Min, 13,500 feet high. 

The West Suchuen and Tibeto-Chinese frontier ranges receive 
large quantities of moisture under the form of rain and snow, and 
the vegetation is luxuriant. East of the Min and its tributaries, 
rise the red sand-stone and carboniferous ranges. These ranges are 
connected with the crests separating the Min affluents from the 
valley of the Han-kiang. According to David Armand these 
ranges attain an elevation of 10,000 feet south of Hanchung-fu. 

South of the Yang-tze-kiang the province of Kweichew (Kui- 
Chase) presents in its general relief a form analagous to that of 
Sechuen. Towards the west it is commanded by a highland region 
above which rise the snow-clad peaks of the Leang-shan, or " Cold 
Mountains." The Nan-lin (Nan-shan), or "Southern Range," 
forms the water parting between the Yang-tze-kiang and Si-kiang 
basins. 

HIGHLANDS OF SOUTH-EASTERN CHINA. 

The highlands of Hunan, Kiangsi and Chekiang have been 
explored only at a few points. On European maps of China wind- 
ing ranges are traced between the river basins on the lines of the 
old Jesuits' charts, while the native maps show mountains scattered 
in all directions. Pumpelly and Richthofen have shown that in an 
area of 320,000 square miles the southeastern region of China is 
covered with heights which do not blend into one continuous pla- 
teau, nor are commanded by any central range of exceptional 
magnitude. Here plains are rare ; short and moderately elevated 
ridges occurring almost everywhere. Most of the eminences have 
a mean height of from 1,500 to 2,500 feet above the river beds. 

In the northwestern part of the province of Fokien the Bohea 
Hills attain a mean elevation of 6,000 or 7,000 feet, with peaks 
rising in the eastern ridges to 10,000 feet. In this upper region 
of the Min is the isolated Wi-shan, one of the most venerated peaks 
in China, consisting of conglomerate sandstone, granite and quartz 
and rising 1,000 feet above the plain. Tea is extensively cultivated 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 291 

by the Buddhist monks of the nine hundred and ninety-nine tem- 
ples scattered over the surrounding hills. 

North of the Si-kiang valley are various mountain ranges 
known by many local names. The most conspicuous of these 
ranges is the Ping-yi-shan, said to rise above the snow-line. The 
northern chains are believed to have a greater mean elevation than 
those in southern Kwang-tung. Beyond the lofty Loyang they are 
pierced by the Si-Kiaug ; the gorges formed by this river consti- 
tute the natural frontier between the two provinces of Kwangsi 
and Kwangtung. In eastern Kwangtung are found other ridges 
running in the same northeasterly direction and continued into the 
province of Fokien. One of these begins at the gates of Canton, 
forming here the group. of the Peiyun-shan (Pak-wan-shan), or 
" White Cloud Mountains," whose slopes are covered with a large 
number of tombs. On the Lofu Hills, whose altitude is from 4,000 
to 5,000 feet, Buddhist monks have built their monasteries in the 
shade of the forest vegetation. 

DIFFICULTIES OF MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION, 

Sven Anders Hedin, the noted explorer, who crossed the Altai- 
Tag mountains, overcame difficulties and hardships that it is hard 
to believe the human body capable of sustaining. P^or days at a 
time Dr. Hedin was obliged to crawl on his hands and knees over 
the torrid alkali deserts of Tibet. He is the first white man to set 
foot upon the shores of Lake Lop Nor. He reported that on the 
shores of Lop Nor he found the smouldering ruins of a magnificent 
city — -a city of beautiful marbles and exquisite mosaics — a city of 
grand terraces and intersected by broad driveways — the tombstones 
of a decayed civilization. At one stage of his journey Dr. Hedin 
crawled on his hands and knees for four miles over the jagged ice 
and freezing snow only to find himself, when he had descended to 
the plain, in a barren desert, without a sign of vegetation or life or 
living thing upon which he could nourish his fast ebbing strength. 
Starved to the point of frenzy Dr. Hedin removed his old boots. 
These he cut into long strips and ate ravenously. He says : 

" It took me five days to cross the Altai range, proceeding 



292 TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

south over the Tengis Bai Pass. All was snow and ice. There 
were no roads. We had to cut a road for the horses. With us 
were thirty Kirghises. We escaped an awful death from a falling 
avalanche by the merest miracle. In part of our track the cold 
was 38 degrees below zero and we were at a height of 14,620 feet. 
When we entered the Chinese territory we suffered awful tortures 
— the Chinese would give us neither food nor shelter. The Chinese 
soldiers kept peeping into my tent all night to see if I did not 
have any soldiers hidden in my pack train. They took me for a 
Russian conqueror." 

Speaking of the attempt to get to Khotan-Darya he says : 
" On May 1 the men began to sicken ; there was no water. My 
men were all weeping and crying to Allah. They would go no 
farther — they wanted to die, they said. We killed our last sheep 
that night and drank the blood. The camels were too weak to 
move and we had to abandon them with nearly all our luggage. I 
carried my maps, my notes and my instruments. One by one my 
servants dropped out of the train, never to rise again. 

" We could not talk, our tongues were so swollen. Thus we 
continued on, crawling on our hands and knees for days. On the 
evening of the fourth day we saw a black line on the horizon. We 
reached it before the sun of the next day got hot. Kasim, my best 
servant, had gone mad. I went on without him. I had not eaten 
or drank anything for ten days now. I crossed the forest, crawling 
on all fours, tottering from tree to tree. I reached Khotan Darya, 
but to find the river bed dry. I managed to drag myself across 
the river bed, and merciful God ! there found a pool of water. I 
took off my boots and filled them with the water, and having slaked 
my thirst, I crawled back to my servant and served him — it saved 
his life." 

FOUR SACRED RIVERS. 

According to the legends of the Hindus, at the foot of the 
Mount of Kailas there are mysterious grottoes. From these grot- 
toes emerge the four divine animals — the elephant, lion, cow and 
horse — symbols of the four sacred rivers — the Satlaj, Indus, Ganges 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 293 

and Tsangbo. These mighty streams flow in four different direc- 
tions, and rise on the flank of the same mountain within a space 
of not more than sixty miles in extent. Many of the head streams 
of the Ganges take their rise on the Indian side of the Himalayas. 
The Indus receives its first waters from the northern snows of the 
Gang-dis-ri. Between these two extreme points is a deep depres- 
sion where rise the Satlaj and Tsangbo. 

On emerging from Lake Rakus-tal, the Lanagu-lanka of the 
Tibetans, the Satlaj (Satradu or Satadru) occasionally runs dry 
towards the end of summer ; lower down it is a permanent stream 
in the valley, 14,600 feet above the sea, which is noted for its ther- 
mal waters. The general incline of the upper Satlaj valley is 
scarcely perceptible within Tibetan territory. Near the spot where 
the river is about to escape through the Himalayan gorges towards 
the plains of India, the terraces on either bank attain an elevation 
of 14,600 feet above the sea. At Lake Mansaraur, one hundred 
and eighty miles farther up the elevation is nearly 14,000 feet. 

THE HIGHEST INHABITED VILLAGE. 

The Tsangbo river, known also as the Tsanpu, Tsambo, 
Zangbo, and Sampo; that is " Holy Stream," has been compared 
to a mystic animal, several of its names meaning the " Peacock," 
or the '* Horse," river. According to one legend it flows from the 
mouth of a war horse. The river itself is navigable at an eleva- 
tion of 14,000 feet above the sea. Of no other river in the world 
can this be said. At Chetang the Tsangbo valley is about 11,250 
feet above the sea level. At this elevation the river has a volume 
equal to that of the Rhine. 

A word in regard to the towns and villages of these sacred 
rivers will not be out of place. The climate of the upper Satlaj 
during the winter is so severe that the towns and villages are 
abandoned during the winter season. The highest permanently 
inhabited village in this part of Tibet is Puling. It stands at an 
elevation of 13,800 feet above the sea. To the northwest of Daba 
in the upper Satlaj valley is the town of Tsaprang at a height of 
15,400 feet. During the winter it is occupied and in the summer 



294 TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

season contains no more than fifteen dwellings. The tipper Indus 
basin, like that of Satlaj, is almost nninhabited. Here is the tem- 
porary capital of the southwestern province of Tibet, Gartok, on 
the Gartung. The name means " High Market " and the place 
probably contains the most elevated hay market in the world. 

In August and September the little clay or adobe houses be- 
come the center of a town consisting of tents, each of its shape 
betraying the origin of the trader occupying it. The dwellings of 
the Tibetans are covered with long black-haired yak hides, and 
present a strange contrast with the white pavilions of the Hindus, 
while the Yurts of the Kashgarian and other Tartars are distin- 
guished by the bright colors of their felt awnings. But in winter 
Gartok is left to the winds and snow sleighs, the traders returning 
to their distant homes, and the few residents retiring to more shel- 
tered villages. 

SLOW-MOVING GLACIERS. 

In the Tsangbo valley the highest inhabited points are either 
the convents or the postal stations. Here the cold is too intense 
to allow any permanently occupied villages to be formed. Tadum, 
the capital of the Dogthol district, is 14,000 feet high. Shigatze, 
or Digarchi, capital of the province of Tsang, lies at a relatively 
lower altitude in the side valley of the Penang-chu, 11,730 feet 
above the sea. Above it are the houses and temples of Tashi-lumpo, 
or, " Exalted Glory,'' residence of the Tashi-lama, Teshu-lama or 
Panchenrimbocheh ; that is the "Jewel of Intelligence." The walls 
of the holy city have a circuit of nearly a mile and a quarter, and 
enclose over three hundred edifices grouped round the palace and 
sacred monuments. From 3,000 to 4,000 monks occupy the mon- 
astery, whose gilded belfries and red walls tower above the houses 
of the lower town. Most of the other towns in this region also 
consist of low dwellings commanded by magnificient buildings, 
which are palaces, fortresses, temples and monasteries, all in one. 

Snow falling from the mountain peaks does not all disappear 
by evaporation or melt and run off in the form of water, but be- 
comes gradually converted into the form of ice or glaciers and 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 295 

moves slowly down the mountain slope in the depressions or val- 
leys until it reaches a point where the temperature has so far risen 
that evaporation and melting counterbalance the supply from above. 
Here the glaciers end and a stream of water begins. These streams 
are often the heads of great rivers, as the great glacier Gangoctri 
of the Ganges. The snow of the glacier is not tranformed into ice 
at once, but passes through intermediate stages. Several subor- 
dinate glaciers often combine and form one large one. This de- 
pends upon the topography of that part of the mountain range in 
which the glacier takes it rise. The ice stream of the longest 
glacier in the Swiss Alps, the Gross Aletsch, was ten and one-fourth 
miles in length in 1880. 

But in the Himalayas are many four times this length. Gla- 
ciers are found on both sides of the Himalayas. In eastern Tibet 
are found beds of reddish clay, like the glacial marls of Europe, 
huge bowlders are strewn over the valleys, and other appearances 
indicate that the glaciers formerly descended much farther down 
the watercourses than at the present time. In Turkestan are the 
Depsang and other peaks rivalling in height and grandeur those of 
the Himalayas. Here are great glaciers whose waters feed the 
Yarkand stream. These glaciers are found wherever peaks tower 
above the snow-line and the atmosphere is such that snow falling 
from the peaks gradually takes the form of ice. 

MOUNTAIN ROUTES AND PASSES. 

The trails through mountain gorges are extremely dangerous 
and difficulties beset the traveler. Some of these gorges are fis- 
sures scarcely sixty feet wide. Whenever the view is interrupted 
by overhanging rocks, the gorge seems completely shut in. At 
many of the narrowest points platforms supported by props have 
been constructed, springing obliquely from rocks. These platforms 
are kept in a bad state of repair and where the planks have been 
worn through glimpses of the seething water below may be had. 

Thirteen passes are used by caravans crossing the Tian-shan 
mountains. All of these passes are practicable in summer for 
saddle horses and pack animals. One of these passes is 11,750 



296 TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 

feet in height, another 12,800 feet. The pass known as the " Poplar 
Pass," 10,450 feet high, is utilized throughout the entire year. 
Another name for this pass is Terek-davan and was used during 
the historic period by most of the Central Asiatic conquerors. 
When the winter snows are unusually heavy a neighboring tribe 
are employed to transport the goods across the pass. 

HOW COMMUNICATIONS ARE MAINTAINED. 

The Chinese have maintained communications from the Nan- 
shan and Tian-shan ranges with the western provinces of the 
Empire by a fertile tract cutting the Gobi desert in two sections. 
The natural route followed by the native caravans starts from 
Lanchew-fu, at the great western bend of the Hoang-ho, and after 
crossing the mountains skirting the Kuku-nor basin, descends 
through the Great Wall and into the northern plains and so on 
northwestwards, to the Hami oasis. Here the historic highway 
branches off on either side of the eastern Tian-shan, one track pene- 
trating the Tarin basin, the other passing through Zimgaria into 
the Aralo-Caspian basin, or the Russian world and Europe. The 
country lying beyond the Great Wall and separated from the 
Hoang-ho basin by lofty ranges, has been attached to the province 
of Kan-su. 

The northern Tian-shan route is distinguished from the south- 
ern Tian-shan route by the title Tian-shan Pe-lu, or Northern 
Tian-shan route ; the southern Tian-shan bears the title Tian-shan 
Nan-lu, or Southern Tien-shan route. This historic roadway con- 
tinues the road running from the Jade Gate obliquely across Mon- 
golian Kan-su through Hami to Urumtsi. An imperial route, 
commanded at intervals by forts and military settlements, crosses 
Zungari from east to west as far as the plateau bounded on the 
north by the Zungarian Ala-tau which is south of the Borokhoro 
range. From this point the Talkai pass and other openings lead 
down to the Kulja valley. This pass is 6,350 feet high. 

In the Yellow Lands much ingenuity has been displayed in 
overcoming the difficulties offered to free communication b}^ the 
perpendicular walls of the Yellow Lands. In passing from one 



TOWERING MOUNTAIN PEAKS. 297 

river basin to another advantage has been taken of every narrow 
fissure. In places deep cuttings have been made and fresh routes 
opened when these have been filled up by the landslides. Many 
of the most frequented roads have been excavated to depths of 
from forty to one hundred feet and upwards. The labor expended 
on all of these works is said to be equal to that lavished on the 
building of the Great Wall, or the construction of the Grand Canal. 

DANGERS TO MAN AND BEAST. 

The roads are frequently continued for hundreds of miles 
almost in the bowels of the earth, but are seldom more than eight 
or ten feet wide. In dry weather the wagons sink into the dust 
up to the axle. After heavy rains the tracks are converted into 
marshes dangerous alike to man and beast. These difficult high- 
ways possess great strategic importance. The blockade of one of 
these defiles at a single point cuts off all communication between 
extensive regions. 

The miner's life in China is usually a hard one, their methods 
of mining in most instances being so crude. In these mines all 
work is done by the hand of man, machinery playing little or no 
part in its execution. The coal is dug, hoisted and transported 
without explosives or powder application. Mining is done with 
pick and gad ; the coal is raised by a man-power windlass. In 
large mines this windlass has a circumference of five feet. A 
crank at each end with a long arm allows four or five men to work 
at turning it. The coal is hoisted in baskets containing about 
three hundred pounds. The clothes of the miner consists of wide, 
loose trousers and a species of jacket, which buttons at the side, 
made of calico manufactured by the natives. They live almost 
entirely on rice and vegetables, occasionally adding a little fish 
They usually live in crowded apartments, thus house rent forms 
an insignificant item in the miner's expenditure. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
Rivers of Tremendous Power. 

Headwaters of the Great India-Chinese Rivers — The Yarkand and Kashgar — Basin of the 
Pei-ho— The Hoang-ho — Basin of the Yang-tse-kiang — Errosive Effects of the Waters 
— Shifting Beds of the Streams — Sudden Inundations — Spirits Control the Waters-- 
Geological Changes Effected. 

THE river systems of China have afforded most interesting 
stndy to geographers and engineers for the last 400 years. 
While in some particulars like the great streams of the 
tropical regions of South America and South Africa, they as a 
whole bear no resemblance to the water systems of any other part 
of the world. Frequent floods, the vast amount of silt which they 
carry, the rapidity with which they create new beds, the localities 
that they enter and the provinces that they abandon, all make them 
objects of wonder to the foreigner and of worship and fear to the 
native. The Hoang-ho or the Yellow river is the master stream 
of them all. The old chroniclers of the Empire called it the " re- 
bellious " river. 

It bursts its dykes whenever it wishes to, floods entire prov- 
inces, destroys thousands of bushels of grain, and brings famine 
and pestilence in its wake. When Genghiz-khan was fighting his 
first battles to conquer China, one of the few defeats he suffered 
was from the flooding of the country in front of him by the use of 
the Yellow river by the natives. Four hundred years after, a 
Mandarin to prevent a surrender submerged the city of Kai-fung-fu 
with its 200,000 inhabitants. Decades after this the Emperor 
Kang-hi in a similar manner destroyed 500,000 of his people. The 
Yellow river shifts as it will, in a few weeks devastating a region 
as great as the area of France or Germany. Since 4200 B.C. the 
manner in which the river has changed its course in the Shantung 
province has been recorded by native officials. 

For the last 2,500 years the bed of the lower Yellow river has 

changed nine times and each time there has been a partial depopu- 
298 



RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 299 

lation of the land through the change. In 1850 the river had one 
course but a year later when the Tai-ping rebellion broke out the 
inhabitants were unable to keep the dikes in repair. The river 
broke through and formed its new course to the Gulf of Pechili. 
Villages were converted into ruins, the cities were devastated and 
the cultivated lands given up. At the present time the width of 
the river at its northern end varies from a few hundred yards to 
two miles. It is believed that during its inundations the stream 
has caused a loss of seven million lives. As illustrating the changes 
of time brought about by the vast amount of earth and sand which 
such a stream carries to the sea, it is to be noted that the town of 
Putai, now lying forty miles from the sea, was 2,100 years ago 
within 600 yards of the coast. All now between it and the coast 
has been filled in by the ungovernable stream, which is navigable 
for only a short distance. 

MEAN DISCHARGE OF THE HOANG-HO. 

Scientists estimate that the mean discharge of the Hoang-ho 
is about 80,000 cubic feet per second. The matter brought down to 
the sea is gradually but surely filling up the basin of the Gulf of Pe- 
chili and the Yellow Sea. Calculations have been made showing that 
in 2,400 years, a very short time in the history of such a nation as 
China, the Yellow Sea will have entirely disappeared. The Chinese 
apply the term Yellow Sea to that portion discolored by the wash 
from the river. The waters beyond, possessing a natural color, 
receive the name of the Black Sea. The stream near the Yellow- 
river which for ages has moved from right to left and from left to 
right in search of a fixed channel is the Hoai, which is practically 
unnavigable. The basin of the Hoang-ho is covered with Hoang-to 
or yellow earth. " In these regions everything is yellow — hills, 
fields, highways, houses, the very torrents and streams charged 
with alluvia. Even the vegetation is often covered with a yellow 
veil, while every breath of wind raises clouds of fine dust. From 
these lands the Empire makes itself the title of Hoang-ti or Yellow 
Lord, equivalent to ' Master of the world.' " 

This yellow soil washed down from mountain barriers, century 



300 RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

after century, is one of the richest in the world. No fertilizing is 
required for it. Heavy crops are produced for ages without its show- 
ing signs of exhaustion. All the nutritive elements of plants are 
contained within it. The moisture penetrates to a great depth, 
owing to its porous capacity. Often it is used as a manure for 
other lands. It enables the peasants in the cold regions of north 
China to raise crops at an elevation of 6,500 feet and at some places 
even at 8,000 feet. 

The present course of the Yang-tse-kiang takes in three-eights 
of China proper, with a population estimated at 225,000,000. 
While the Yang-tse-kiang is far larger than the Yellow river and 
bears the title of the " Great " river, it has not been quite so eccen- 
tric as this river. According to the Chinaman the Yellow river 
stands for the earth, or the " female principle," whose symbolic 
color is yellow, and the Yang-tse-kiang is the son of the " male 
principle," which is of heaven. The title " Blue" has sometimes 
been given the river. Another name which it bears is " son of the 
ocean." In Asia it is only surpassed in length by three other streams, 
the Ob, the Yenisei and Lena. Its length is 2,800 miles and it drains 
750,000 square miles. In volume it is exceeded by only three 
other streams in the world — the Amazon, Congo and La Plata. 
Where it runs below its junction with the Han, its mean discharge 
is 635,000 cubic feet per second, and during the time of high water 
1,260,000 cubic feet per second. 

COMMERCIAL VALUE OF THE YANG-TZE-KIANG. 

When comparing their two great water highways, the Chinese 
always contrast the beneficent character of the southern with the 
disastrous influence of the northern stream, which they have given 
the name of the "Scourge of the Sons of Han." The Yang-tze- 
kiang has never caused the widespread ruin that characterizes the 
shiftings of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river, nor is any river in the 
world more useful for navigation. If it does not number as many 
steamers as the Mississippi or the Volga, it is none the less crowded 
with junks and river craft of every description, while its floating 
population is numbered by hundreds of thousands. Marco Polo 



RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 301 

declared that the waters of the " Kian " bore more vessels, laden 
with more merchandise, than all the united seas and rivers of 
Christendom. 

In 1850 a fire, caused by lightning, broke out in the port of 
Uchang, which destroyed seven hundred large junks and thousands 
of small boats, while as many as fifty thousand people are said to 
have lost their lives either by fire or water. One local merchant 
alone ordered as many as ten thousand coffins. The Tai-ping re- 
bellion swept the river of its inhabitants for a time, but since the 
restoration of peace, local trade has revived, and long lines of craft 
engaged in peaceful pursuits have again made their appearance on 
its waters. 

The Mongolians have given the Yang-tze-kiang the name of 
Dalai, or " Sea." It has played the same part in the history of 
China as the ocean and great marine inlets have elsewhere. It may 
be regarded as a continuation of the seaboard, and through this 
channel European influences are penetrating into the heart of the 
Empire. The total length of the navigable waters in its basin is 
equal to half the circumference of the globe. 

THE HEAD STREAMS. 

The head streams of the Yang-tze-kiang rise on the Tibetan 
plateau, far beyond the limits of China proper. Three rivers 
known to the Mongolians as " Red Rivers," or the Nameitu, Tok- 
tonai and Kesai, take their rise in the northeastern region of Khachi, 
south of the unexplored Kuen-lun ranges. These three streams 
jointly form the Murui-ussu, or " Winding Water," of the Mon- 
golians. In Tibetan it is known as " River of the Cow," or 
the Dichu, or Brichu, while in Chinese territory it becomes the 
Yang-tze-kiang. Prjevalsky crossed it at an elevation of 13,000 
feet, where its current was very rapid. 

The Murui-ussu flows south for 600 miles and is then deflected 
eastwards to the China sea. At this part of its course it has re- 
ceived the names of Kinsha-kiang, or " River of the Golden Sands," 
and Peshui-kiang, or " White Water." The Yalung has also been 
called Kinsha-kiang. The Yalung takes its rise in the Bayan- 



302 RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

khara mountains, the westward continuation of the Kuen-lun 
range, and flows from the slopes parallel with the Murui-ussu until 
it joins the Yang-tze-kiang. Below its confluence with the Yalung 
river, and the Yang-tze-kiang received another tributary from the 
Bayan-khara, the Min-shan. On our map this is called the Wen 
or Min River. 

In the Yukung, the oldest geographical work of the Chinese, 
the Min is described as forming the upper course of the " Great 
River," and Marco Polo, who lived in its valley, gives it the name 
of " Kian." On the old maps the upper course of the Kinsha- 
kiang is suppressed, while an exaggerated importance is assigned 
to the Hoang-ho, whose valley was the first to be settled. Since 
Marco Polo's time the Min has shifted its bed in the plain where 
Chingtu-fu, the capital of the province of Sechuen, is situated. It 
formerly flowed through the heart of the city in a deep channel 
half a mile broad. It no longer traverses the place, but ramifies 
into several branches, of which the nearest is to the town walls is 
only three hundred and thirty feet wide. 

This change in its course is due to the irrigation canals con- 
structed in the surrounding plain, one of the most fertile in China. 
During the inundations the Min is navigable as far as Chingtu-fu. 
At other periods boats cannot get beyond Sintsin-hein, the converg- 
ing point of all the natural and artificial channels in this basin. 
In all this region the old banks may be traced at a considerable 
elevation above the present level of the highest floodings. It is 
evident that the river formerly flowed at a much higher elevation 
than at present. 

REGULAR SYSTEMS OF TOWING NECESSARY. 

Between the provinces of Sechuen and Hupeh the Yang-tze- 
kiang plunges into a gorge whose vertical walls are over six hundred 
and fifty feet high. At some points the channel is scarcely four 
hundred and seventy feet wide. During the rainy season the river 
here rises from sixty to seventy feet above its ordinary level. To 
avoid these inundations the houses are perched on the crests of the 
headlands. Ordinary craft, if well managed, pass down without 



RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 303 

much danger of going to pieces on the sunken shoals ; but those 
ascending the stream have to struggle against a current in some 
places running over ten miles an hour. Here a regular towing 
system has been organized. 

At the more dangerous points villages have sprung up peopled 
by skilled boatmen engaged in this work. As many as a hundred 
are sometimes attached to the bamboo towing rope of a single junk. 
These are sometimes preceded by a clown or hired buffoon leaping 
and bounding along, and encouraging them with his antics. 

As the sea is approached the danger of inundation increases 
with the gradual lowering of the banks, and in the plains the 
stream is enclosed on both sides by regular embankments, like 
those of the Hoang-ho. The evil here is greatly mitigated by ex- 
tensive lagoons and even lakes, which are beginning to make their 
appearance on both sides. 

IMMENSE OVERFLOW. 

Of these lakes the largest is Tung-ting, which lies above the 
confluence of the Kan-kiang and Yang-tze-kiang. Tung-ting covers 
an area of at least 2,000 square miles, and serves as a reser- 
voir for the overflaw of a basin of some 80,000 square miles in 
extent, comprising nearly all of the province of Hunan. The 
provinces of Hupeh and Hunan are named from the Tung-ting — 
" North of the Lake " and " South of the Lake '' respectively. 

The chief affluent of the lower Yang-tze-kiang is the Han- 
kiang, which presents a natural highway of trade and migration 
between the two great arteries of the Empire. The Han-kiang is 
navigable almost throughout its whole course, and in summer may 
be ascended by steamers for a distance of six hundred miles. In 
its basin the climate is temperate and healthy, its soil is fertile, 
abundant water of good quality is to be found and a great variety 
of flora, gypsum, marbles and other building material are found in 
the neighboring hills, and also rich carboniferous deposits. 

The whole plain stretching from Lake Tung-ting to the con- 
fluence of the Han-kiang and Yang-tze-kiang is at times converted 
into a vast inland sea. The villages are often built on broad ter- 



304 RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

races resting against the embankments, and during the inunda- 
tions form artificial islands amid the surrounding waters. 

ESTUARY OF THE "GREAT RIVER." 

Below Lake Poyang, in the province of Kiang-si, the Yang- 
tze-kiang flows northeast across one of the most pleasant landscapes 
in China. Here the current flows in its broad bed with a uniform 
motion ; the hamlets along the banks are built in the midst of 
bamboo thickets ; the neighborhood of the busy marts is announced 
by the towers and pagodas crowning every eminence. Beyond 
Nanking, the Yang-tze-kiang turns eastwards and gradually 
expands into a broad estuary in which the tides ascend for a dis- 
tance of two hundred and fifteen miles. At the mouth of the river 
the distance from headland to headland is about sixty miles. Most 
of this space is occupied by islands and shoals. The chief danger 
to navigation here is the dense fogs which settle on the shallows, 
and which are due to the sudden change of temperature produced 
in the currents surrounded by deeper waters. 

The Yang-tze-kiang carries less sedimentary matter than the 
Hoang-ho. According to the observations of Guppy, the propor- 
tion of solids in the lower regions is 2m in weight, and 4 ^ 57 in vol- 
ume. " Yet the alluvium at the mouth," says Elisee Reclus, 
"represents a solid mass of nearly two hundred and ten cubic feet 
per second. Thus the yearly increase of fluvial deposits amounts 
to 6,300 millions of cubic feet, a quantity sufficient to spread a 
layer of mud nearly seven feet thick over an area of forty square 
miles. 

This causes the navigable channels to change their positions 
from year to year ; new sand banks make their appearance, and 
the islands in the estuary constantly increase in size. At the time 
of the Mongol rule, the island of Tsungming, or Kianshe, is said a 
to have been just rising above the surface. Eaten away by erosion 
on the side facing inland, it is continually increasing seawards, and 
is thus drifting in the direction from west to east. Of its inhabi- 
tants Elisee Reclus says : 

" Its earliest settlers were exiles banished from the mainland ; 



RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 305 

but these were soon followed by free colonists, who gradually 
changed the aspect of the land with their canals, embankments, 
villages and cultivated fields. Some Japanese pirates also gained 
a footing on the coast facing seawards, where their descendants, 
turning to the arts of peace, have become intermingled with the 
Chinese peasantry. At present about 2,000,000 souls are crowded 
together in an area of scarcely more than 800 square miles, which 
is thus one of the most densely populated as well as one of the 
richest spots in China. At present these islanders take successive 
possession of all the new lands formed in the Yang-tze-kiang 
estuary." 

Great changes, though not as important as those of the Hoang- 
ho, have taken place in the course of the lower Yang-tze-kiang. It 
formerly had two additional mouths, south of its present mouth. 
The windings of the largest of these may still be traced. The out- 
lines of its ancient bed are preserved 03^ a string of lakes in the 
Shanghai peninsula, now abandoned by the Yang-tze-kiang. 

HEAD WATERS OF INDIA-CHINESE RIVERS. 

North of the Tsangbo river, the Tibetan tableland has been 
cut into innumerable side valleys by running waters. As far as 
can be judged from the roughly sketched charts of explorers, sup- 
plemented by Chinese documents, the streams of the province of 
Kham indicate by the direction of their valleys the general run of 
the mountain ranges. All of these streams flow first north-east 
parallel with the Tant-la ridge, then finding an issue westwards, 
they gradually trend towards the south through the narrow and 
deep valleys of the Indo-Chinese system. 

The Tsangbo is deflected to the north-east before bending to 
the southern plains. Similar curves on a much larger scale are 
described by the Mekhong and Salwen rivers and the Yang-tze- 
kiang runs parallel with the Mekhong several hundred miles 
southwards to an opening in the hills, through which it passes 
eastwards into China proper. Nowhere else are met so many inde- 
pendent streams flowing so near each other in parallel valleys, yet 
ultimately discharging into different seas. 
20 



306 RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

In the south-western corner of Chinese Turkestan rises the 
Yarkand-daria, also called the Zarafshan, or " Auriferous." Over 
one-fourth of the population are concentrated along its banks. Its 
alluvial deposits are more precious than its golden sands. Its far- 
thest source is on the Karakorum Pass (17,500 feet). It is swollen 
by numerous feeders sent down from the snows and glaciers of the 
Dapsang and other peaks. The Yarkand is a large stream when 
it reaches the plains, where its volume is diminished by evaporation 
and the extensive irrigation works developed along its banks. 
During the floods, however, the main branch is still four hundred 
or five hundred feet broad. 

RIVALS THE DANUBE. 

The Yarkand is joined by the Kashgar, Kashar-daria, which 
takes its rise in eastern Turkestan. The Khotan and Yarkand, 
swollen by the Kashgar, unite with the Ak-su. By the junction 
of these rivers is formed the Tarim (Tarim-gol), the Oechardes of 
the Greek geographers. The term Tarim is little used by the 
natives, who, according to Prjevalsky, call the united stream the 
Yarkand-daria. 

The Tarim rivals the Danube in length, but, unlike that river, 
diminishes in size as it approaches its mouth, although still fed by 
other tributaries from the north. As it approaches the deepest 
portion of the Tian-shan Nan-lu depression, the velocity of the 
Tarim is gradually diminished. Near the village of Abdalli, close 
to its mouth in Lob-nor, it is little more than 2,000 feet per second, 
and the discharge here may be estimated at about 2,700 cubic feet. 
Here the Tarim is divided into a number of natural and artificial 
canals, beyond which it disappears in a forest of reeds. 

The Si-kiang, or Sei-kong, as the people of Canton call it, 
which means " West River," contains a large volume of water, due 
mainly to the summer monsoons. The Si-kiang is also known as 
the Pue-kiang, or u River of Pue," and receives its farthest head- 
streams from Yunnan and the Kweichew uplands. The Hung- 
shui is its main branch and flows under various names before 
receiving from the Cantonese the title by which its lower course is 



RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 307 

known. Owing to this want of more precise nomenclature, ever} 7 

traveler has regarded the head-stream visited by him as the main 

branch. 

Hue and Gabet, who embarked on a stream rising at the foot 

of the Mei-ling, in the northern part of the province of Canton, and 

Moss, who ascended the Yu-kiang, which takes its rise in Tonking, 

all supposed they had explored the chief branch of the Si-kiang. 

Below its junction with these two streams the main stream is joined 

by the Kwei-kiang, after which it penetrates into the province of 

Kwangtung. At some points it is obstructed by shoals, and at low 

water there is little more than six or seven feet in the channel. 

During the summer rains it rises from twent3^-five to thirty feet and 

upwards, while the tides are felt at Kwangsi, 180 miles from its 

mouth. 

IMPORTANCE AS TRADE ROUTES. 

Farther down it is joined by the Pe-kiang, or a River of the 
North." From its source to this point it develops a course of about 
eight hundred miles, which is the only commercial highway 
between Canton and the three provinces of Kwangsi, Kweichew and 
Yunnan. The Pe-kiang is more important than the main stream 
as a trade route, for it forms a section of the great highway con- 
necting Canton with the Yang-tze-kiang basin. This is the route 
followed by most European travelers who have visited the southern 
regions of the Empire. 

In 1693 the missionary Bouvet explored the Pe-kiang river and 
in 1722 its basin was astronomically surveyed by Gaubil. It is the 
most important historic route of the Empire, as but for it the whole 
of the southern region would remain detached from the " Middle 
Kingdom." The traffic on the Pe-kiang has been much reduced 
since the development of steam navigation on the coast, although 
the overland intercourse between the Si-kiang and Yang-tze-kiang 
basins is still great. 

Below the confluence of the Si-kiang and Pe-kiang rivers, the 
united stream is divided almost at right angles, the main channel 
flowing southwards to the coast, while a second branch trends east 
wards to the network of branches and backwaters which intersect 



308 RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

the alluvial plains of Canton. These waters are joined from the 
east by the Tung-kiang, or " River of the East," whose farthest 
sources rise in the north-east on the frontiers of Kiangsi and 
Fokien. This is also an important highway for the transportation 
of sugar, rice, and other agricultural produce. 

Nearly all the channels of the Canton delta are navigable. 
These watercourses are so numerous that in a region over 3,000 
square miles in extent land routes are rarely required. For this 
reason the population has almost become amphibious, living on 
land and afloat. Large water fairs have been held in the delta. 
The inhabitants pursue other industries aside from that of fishing. 
Many of the agricultural classes reside permanently in boats 
moored to the shore. This region has become the great center of 
commerce in the Empire. And here also, piracy has found a home 
during times of disorder. Even the European war vessels found it 
difficult to rid this region from daring pirates. 

The Chu-kiang, or " Pearl River," forms one of the broadest 
and deepest channels by which junks at Canton reach the two 
estuaries. The shoals and even the banks of the stream are sub- 
ject to constant shiftings, the land generally encroaching on the 
channel, owing to a line of hills which serve to retain the sediment- 
ary matter brought down by the stream and washed back by the 

tides. 

RIVERS OF MANCHURIA. 

The two chief rivers of Manchuria are the Sungari and the 
Liao-he. Although these rivers differ in size, they resemble each 
other in the disposition of their valleys. Both flow in opposite 
directions, and describe semicircles of great regularity, that of the 
upper Nonni, or main branch of the Sungari, corresponding with 
that of the Shara-muren, or upper Liao-he, while the lower Sungari 
reproduces the bend of the lower Liao-he. 

Both the Manchus and Chinese regard the Sungari as the 
main stream of the common basin which it forms with the Ainur. 
Yet it is inferior to the latter both in volume and length, except in 
summer, when its discharge is greater, owing to the melting of 
the snows on the White Mountains. In many places it is over a 




ADMIRAL GEORGE C. REMEY 

UNITED STATES NAVAL COMMANDER IN CHINA 




THE LAST STAND OF THE CHINESE AT LANG-FANG 






RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 309 

mile wide. During the floods the Sungari becomes an inland sea 
dotted with islands, where flocks of wild geese, swans and ducks 
are found. As an historic highway across the continent it has 
been eclipsed by the Amur, down which the Russians reached the 
Pacific seaboard. 

The traffic of the Middle Sungari is extensive, the channel 
being often completely blocked by the fleets of junks lying at 
anchor near the large towns. It is navigable by craft drawing 
forty inches for at least nine hundred miles between the city of 
Girin and the ford of Amur. The Nonni, its main branch, is also 
navigable. The Mutan-he, or Khurkha, which joins the Sungari 
at Sansing, is available for inland traffic. The steamer carrying 
the explorers Usoltzev and Kropotkin was the first to ascend the 
Sungari. 

IMPORTANT HISTORIC HIGHWAY. 

The Shara-muren, or " Yellow river," which takes its rise on 
the Mongolian plateau, is not navigable above the point where it 
enters the province of Liaotung under the name of the Liao-he. 
In its lower course it is navigable by vessels drawing about ten 
feet of water. The alluvia brought down by the stream has en- 
croached to such an extent on the Gulf of Liaotung that the city 
of Niuchwang, said to have formerly stood at the mouth of the 
river, now lies many miles inland. From century to century the 
ports have been shifted as the river advanced seawards, and the 
navigation of the gulf is now endangered by banks and shallows. 

The Liao-he valley has been an important historic highway. 
The Manchus followed this route down to the Yellow Sea when 
they advanced to the conquest of China, and it was also followed 
by the Chinese military expeditions to the Sungari basin and the 
Corean frontier. The imperial government has always guarded 
the Liao-he valley with great care, as shown by the remains of ex- 
tensive ramparts and fortifications in the neighborhood of Mukden. 
It affords Manchuria its only outlet seawards. 

The basin of the Pei-ho lies some distance from the heart of 
the land comprised between the two great rivers, Yang-tze-kiang 



310 RIVERS OF TREMENDOUS POWER. 

and Hoang-ho. The whole region of the lower Pei-ho was at one 
time a marine basin, which has not yet been completely filled in 
by the sedimentary matter washed down from the interior. Num- 
erous lagoons or swamps still cover large tracts, and the slope of 
the land is so slight that at times the country for a space of 6,000 
square miles is covered with water from two to six feet deep. At 
these times the crops are destroyed, the land wasted by famine, 
and the rivers and channels diverted from their course. 

The Wen-ho which formerly formed the northern section of 
the Grand Canal between Tien-Tsin and the Yang-tze-kiang, is no 
longer navigable. Nearly all the names of the villages bear evi- 
dence to the constant shifting of the streams in this low-lying 
region. 

According to the Chinese all these great streams are controlled 
by spirits of whom they stand in constant fear lest they become 
angry and cause the rivers to overflow. Prayers and sacrifices are 
constantly being offered, and at each inundation the people become 
more careful not to commit acts which may be displeasing to the 
spirits. 






CHAPTER XIX. 

Agriculture the Great Industry. 

First Chinese Were Herdsmen — Value of Rice to the Race — Quantity Annually Used 
in Pekin — Cultivation of Other Cereals — Invention of the Plow — Discovery of the 
Silk Worm — Annual Product — Large Farms Unknown — Milk Quite Scarce — Hens 
Taught to Save — Size of Crops — Best Known Gardeners. 

A CHINESE farmer is about as unlike his American compeer 
as can be imagined. He does not live as they do in com- 
paratively isolated districts, but in a village which is walled 
around and very densely peopled. In China two hundred acres of 
land is a huge farm. The man who owns ten is considered wealthy, 
while a single acre will yield its owner a decided competence. Rice, 
sugar cane, potatoes, indigo, ginger, tobacco and wheat — these are 
the things he grows. Rice, of course, is the Chinese staff of life. 

As the Chinese farmer uses no milk, butter or cheese, the 
only four-legged beast on a Chinese farm is the zebu, a species of 
oxen, that is used for drawing the plow. Perhaps the most curious 
phase of Chinese farming is the fact of the Chinese farmer train- 
ing his hens to follow the harvesters to pick up the last grains left 
among the stubble and also the noxious insects that abound there. 

If at the close of the present turbulent times in China any 
enterprising American should care to emigrate there to start 
a farm, the cost of such a product will, no doubt, prove of much 
interest. Of course, as to the price of the land no authentic figures 
can be given at this time, as the result of the present conflict will 
have a great deal to do with the matter. A complete outfit will 
cost about $50, consisting of a plow, with two shares, a harrow, a 
fanning mill, a pump worked by a treadle for irrigating the fields, 
a zebu, hoes, sickles and numerous sundries. If the farmer should 
care to hire a laborer he will have to pay him about $25 a year, 
inclusive of food, clothing, tobacco and head-shaving. Twelve 
cents a day is a fair allowance for many Chinamen, and the fortun- 
ate recipient of so much wealth will often share his good fortune 
with one or more dependent relatives. 

311 



312 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

The soil of China has been under extensive cultivation for at 
least 4,000 years and yet, so far as investigation has gone, shows 
no sign of exhaustion. It not only supports all the inhabitants of 
the Empire, but also is able to yield a considerable surplus for ex- 
port trade. The Chinese peasant has no chemical knowledge such 
as is possessed by Europeans, nor the improved implements for 
rejuvinating the soil. But through necessity he has gradually 
become acquainted with the quality of the land and the require- 
ments of cultivated plants. He is known as the " best gardener in 
the world." 

UNDERSTANDS THE ART OF FARMING. 

Thus, with far more intelligence than that possessed by the 
average Western farmer, he understands the necessary rotation of 
crops on the same soil. He has learned of the preparation of lime, 
phosphates, ashes, animal and vegetable remains and other manures 
which are needed. If his agricultural implements are rude, he sup- 
plements them with sheer, arduous, personal labor. He weeds his 
garden with a care shown by no other gardener in existence. His 
methods of irrigation are too innumerable to be specifically stated. 
He does not operate what is known in the West as the " big farm " 
or the " bonanza farm " but he gardens. His work is along the 
line of what is called in Europe or America truck gardening. 

So successful is he in this work that in some provinces he 
makes a single acre of land support seven or eight persons. Upon 
two acres fifteen people will often be found living and enjoying 
themselves under rather comfortable circumstances. According to 
the last report at hand, of the total area of the Empire, he has 
165,000,000 acres under cultivation, and yet there is only one 
province in the Empire, and that Shantung, where more than 
half the land is actually cultivated. The following remarkable 
statement in regard to these agricultural conditions is from the pen 
of Elisee Reclus : 

" Liebig has well pointed out the remarkable contrast pre- 
sented by Chinese husbandry to that of some other countries, 
where the soil has already been exhausted. Palestine, now so arid, 



AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 313 

at one time ' flowed with milk and honey.' Central Italy has also 
become impoverished* and how many other regions have been re- 
duced to wildernesses by ignorant and wasteful systems ! 

" Even in the United States many formerly productive tracts 
are now barren, while England, France and Germany are already 
obliged to import much of their supplies, as well as the guano and 
other fertilizing substances required to restore its productive energy 
to exhausted land. But in China, apart altogether from the " Yel- 
low Lands,' which need no manure, the arable regions have main- 
tained their fecundity for over 4,000 years, entirely through the 
thoughtful care of the peasantry in restoring to the soil in another 
form all that the crops are taking from it." 

VALUE OF RICE TO THE PEOPLE. 

According to Stanislas Julien, a ceremonial ordinance was 
established in China by the Emperor Chin-nung (2800 B.C.) in 
accordance with which the Emperor sowed rice himself while four 
other kinds were sown by the princes of his family. It is the 
staple food throughout the central and southern provinces of the 
Empire, and occupies at least one-eighth of all the land under cul- 
tivation. Rice yields best on low lands subject to occasional inun- 
dations. It is sown broadcast in some districts and is transplanted 
after a fortnight or three weeks. No special rotation is followed. 
The soil best suited for rice is ill-adapted for any other crop. No 
special tillage is required, but weeding and irrigation are necessary. 

Rice in the husk is known as " paddy." It forms one of the 
chief items of the import trade, and thousands of junks are yearly 
employed in this traffic, which is entirely in the hands of the 
natives. In the city of Pekin alone nearly 450,000 tons of rice are 
annually consumed. It is particularly valuable to the poor of the 
Empire, being their chief article of diet, and the failure of the crop 
in any one province means distress to thousands of inhabitants. 
Had China proper means of communication this famine would not 
be feared, as provinces in which the crop was not a failure could 
supply the province in which it was a failure. 

The cultivated varieties of rice are extremely numerous, some 



314 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

kinds being adapted for marshy land, others for growth on the 
hillsides. Cultivators make two principal divisions, according as 
the sorts are early or late. Other subdivisions depend upon the 
habit of the plant, the color of the grain and other particulars. 
The plant ranges from one to six feet in height. It requires for 
ripening a temperature of from sixty to eighty degrees. In some 
cases a little manure is employed and in others an abundance 
of manure is used. 

North of the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river, wheat millet, and 
sorgho are the prevailing cereals, and to each house is generally 
attached a kitchen garden in which are planted all the European 
and other vegetables according to climate. G. W. Cook concludes, 
after an investigation in several parts of the country, that " Europe 
has nothing to learn from China in the art of agriculture. It is 
true that the Chinese have no summer fallow lands ; but, on the 
other hand, they have no stiff clays. They have no couch grass; 
no thistles contending for the full possession of the land, as we see 
in many parts of Wales and Ireland ; no uninvited poppies ; no 
straggling stalky crops, the poverty-stricken covering of an ex- 
hausted soil. 

THE STAPLE PRODUCTS. 

"At rare intervals the coxcomb is found among the cotton. 
Generally speaking, there is not a leaf above the ground which 
does not appertain to the crop to which the field is appropriated. 
In the districts where rice and cotton are the staple products these 
crops often extend over tracts of thousands of acres. The peas, 
wheat and indigo and turnips lie in patches around the villages. 
The ground is not only clean but the soil so well pulverized that 
after a week's rain the traveler will sometimes look about in vain 
for a clod to throw into a pond." 

Pasture lands are as scarce as forests in China. The land is 
too valuable to be devoted to stock raising, for a tract required to 
support a million oxen would yield cereals and vegetables enough 
for 12,000,000 human beings. The mythical Emperor Fo-hi, said 
to have flourished fifty-three centuries ago, is supposed to have 



AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 315 

been the first to domesticate the horse, ox, pig, dog, sheep and 
fowls. The larger animals, including the buffalo, are little used, 
except for carriage. They are protected from the cold with warm 
clothing and from rough roads with straw shoes. The peasant eats 
the flesh of these animals with great reluctance, owing to his nat- 
ural attachment to them, and the Buddhist precept. There are 
numerous vegetarian societies in the Empire, which abstain from 
wine, garlic, and onions. 

DOGS, RATS, SNAKES AS FOOD. 

There are several varieties of the hog, whose flesh is relished 
by the upper classes. On the rivers and reservoirs flocks of three 
or four thousand ducks are met. These flocks are looked after 
either by children in boats or by cocks which are taught to keep 
them together by crowing and flapping their wings. A large traffic 
is done in these water fowl. After being killed, they are dried be- 
tween two boards and in this state forwarded to the most distant 
provinces. In the southern provinces, a particular breed of dogs 
are prepared in the same way. These dogs are small, somewhat 
resembling the greyhound in form. The skin is almost destitute 
of hair. Even rats and mice are prepared in the same way. 

In many instances the locust, silkworm, and snake enter into 
the diet of the poor, while sharks' fins and swallows' nests are 
served on the tables of the rich. Ducks' eggs constitute another 
delicacy. They are steeped, while fresh, in a solution of salt and 
lime. Penetrating through the shell the lime burns the contents 
quite black and imparts to the egg a decided flavor. In this state 
it is encased in clay and baked, after which it will keep a long time, 
the white being reduced to the consistency of jelly, while the yelk 
becomes about as firm as a hard-boiled egg. After the death of 
Commissioner Yeh, in Calcutta, where he had been detained as a 
state prisoner, several large boxes of eggs prepared in this manner 
were found among his effects. 

The Chinese have discovered a means of increasing the fecun- 
dity of their poultry, hence, the production of eggs is much greater 
than in Europe, The hen is prevented from hatching by being 



316 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

taught to bathe, and artificial incubation had been practised long 
before the art was known in the West. Pigeons are protected 
from the birds of prey by means of a bamboo whistle, no thicker 
than a sheet of paper, inserted between the wings. Wonderful 
devices have been introduced for the capture of fish. They are 
taken without nets or traps and great skill is displayed in rearing 
and propagating both salt and fresh-water species. The samli, a 
kind of shad, is produced almost exclusively by artificial means, 
and sent in large earthen vessels, far and wide, in every state of 
development. 

The explorers of China mention seventy cultivated plants — 
the most important economically, being the sugar-cane, cotton, 
mulberry, wax, tallow, varnish tree and bamboo. Opium, although 
officially interdicted, is cultivated in nearly all of the provinces of 
the Empire, and especially in Hepeh, Sechuen and Yunnan. 
Cotton was at one time largely grown in the Lower Yang-tze-kiang 
valley, to the detriment of other plants which have since recovered 
their ground. In the province of Sechuen the principal crops 
grown are beans, barley, buckwheat, hemp, maize, millet, opium, 
rice, secamum, sugar cane, tobacco and wheat. Beans are sown 
early in October and harvested about May. Barley and buck- 
wheat are sown about the beginning of November and gathered 
about the middle of March. 

HOW SUGAR IS MADE. 

Hemp, of which there are various kinds, is sown in the spring, 
but the seeds do not require renewal. The stumps are each year 
covered with manure after the stalks have been broken off. The 
first and best crop is gathered about the end of the Chinese year, 
the second in the third moon, and the third in the sixth or seventh 
moon. It is considered far better to tear off the stalks than to cut 
them, but as this method is slower and more troublesome, it is not 
used among the larger growers. 

Maize is planted in small quantities all over the province. It 
is planted at the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth 
moon and takes about one hundred days to ripen. It is sometimes 




THE STORMING OF THE SHIKU ARSENAL AT TIEN TSIN 




*< ™&-(steA&K 



FLAGBEARERS OF THE FIRST REGULAR CHINESE TROOPS TO FIGHT 
THE BOXERS, MARCHING ALONG THI TIEN-TSIN ROAD 



AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 317 

used in making Chinese alcohol, and also sugar. Millet, or kaoli- 
ang, is grown plentifully all over the province. It is sown in the 
third moon and harvested in the seventh moon. Millet is princi- 
pally made into Chinese alcohol. Sesamum is chiefly used for 
making oil. It is sown in the second moon and harvested in the 
seventh moon. It is grown in great quantities in and near Kwei Fu. 
There are two sorts of sugar-cane grown in Sechuen - the red 
and white varieties. The red requires more manure and more 
attention than the white, and is chiefly used for eating in its raw 
state. Four kinds of sugar are made from the white variety — first, 
the unrefined, or brown, which is in commonest use ; second, the 
white, which is simply the brown freed from its impurities. Crys- 
talized sugar is again made from white sugar, chiefly used for 
making sweetmeats. Refined sugar is obtained by placing the 
brown in vats, floored with grass and covered with potash obtained 
from the same kind of grass. Sugar-cane is planted in small quan- 
tities all over the province and is sown in the first moon and cut in 

the eighth. 

METHOD OF CULTURE. 

Tobacco is grown all over the province, but the principal 
places are Hsing Tu-hsien, Hsing Fan, Kin Fang, and Pe-hsien, 
near Chengtu. It is sown in the twelfth moon, taken up and 
planted in the spring, and is ready to be cut during the fourth 
moon. After the leaves have been carefully spread out, it is hung 
up to dry and also to catch the dew for three or four nights. When 
this is accomplished the leaves are curled up and made into bun- 
dles ready to be exported or taken to the various markets for sale. 
Wheat is grown extensively throughout the province. It is made 
into flour and vinegar. It is sown in the twelfth moon and har- 
vested during the fourth moon. 

Apples, cherries, chestnuts of two varieties, dates, grapes, lotus 
nuts, melons, olives, oranges, peaches, peanuts, pears, persimmons, 
plums, pomegranates, and walnuts are grown in the southern pro- 
vinces. The quality of pears grown might be improved if the 
natives knew more about horticulture. In appearance the fruit is 
fine, but has little juice and is something like a potato. Cherries 



318 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

are plentifully grown. The fruit ripens about April and the season 
lasts four weeks. The fruit is small and is used by the natives for 
preserves. It is very cheap in price. Grapes of a white variety 
are grown, but the quality is inferior. Two kinds of oranges are 
grown — the loose skin, called mandarin, and the close-skin orange. 
The oranges grown in the province of Sechuen are inferior in qual- 
ity to the American orange. They lack proper cultivation. The 
mandarin orange, is extensively grown. The outer and inner skins 
are exported in great quantities and are used for medicinal pur- 
poses. 

SOCIETIES FOR WATCHING THE CROPS. 

There are organizations in China grouped under the general 
name of " Societies for Watching the Crops." This is made neces- 
sary by the universal propensity to steal growing fruits, grain and 
vegetables — the latter including melons, squashes, sweet potatoes, 
peanuts, and corn or maize — and among the fruits pears, peaches, 
plums and grapes. Every person considers it his privilege to steal 
as many of these things from somebody else as he can, the only 
fault being in getting caught. Therefore crops of any kind that 
are ready for use must be watched night and day to save them from 
wholesale spoliation. 

It is to economize time and energy in this direction that socie- 
ties are often formed by whom men are hired or appointed as crop- 
watchers. To mitigate this evil somewhat — or, perhaps, the neces- 
sity of stealing among the poor and landless classes — the practice 
is common of leaving the gleanings of a field of grain or cotton for 
whoever may come. On certain fixed days, for example, any one 
is privileged to strip leaves from the sorghum-plant up to a certain 
height, or to pick cotton balls after a date agreed upon or fixed by 
the local magistrates. 

In wricing of the country between Tien-Tsin and Pekin, D. 
MacKenzie Davidson, retired Colonel of the Chinese War Depart- 
ment and Engineer of the Imperial Gunpowder Works at Tien- 
Tsin, says : 

" After leaving Tien-Tsin one enters a level country showing 
signs of minute cultivation. The first place of any importance is 



AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 319 

Peit-Sang, a village and station on the now torn-np railroad, nine 
miles from Tien-Tsin. Peit-Sang like every village not important 
enough to have a wall has a moat around it, which is largely a 
receptacle for sewage. The country here is a good one for making 
earthworks for military purposes. The land is given up almost 
entirely to the cultivation of millet, and to truck gardening. The 
truck gardens are the most interesting. The cabbages, asparagus, 
peas, tomatoes, pumpkins and other vegetables they grow are the 
finest in the world. The Chinese cultivators are independent of 
nature and the elements. They depend neither on rain nor sun- 
shine to raise their vegetables. The work goes on uninterruptedly 
all the year round. 

" I made a most remarkable discovery in connection with these 
truck gardens. On the road to Pekin I noticed smoke issuing from 
the trunk of a tree. You will admit that it is a peculiar place for 
smoke to be coming from. I should add that this was in midwin- 
ter. I went up to the tree and after a great deal of groping around 
I found the entrance to a great underground catacomb. The tree 
was hollowed out aud served as a chimney for the excavation. I 
went down and found that these catacombs were devoted to the cul- 
tivation of vegetables in winter. Everything that grows outdoors 
grows down here too. 

MANNER OF WATERING CROPS. 

Thus the thrifty Chinaman uses the bowels as well as the sur- 
face of the earth as a garden. It was so dark down there that I 
had to use a candle to see my way. I then noticed something that 
was announced as a new discovery by scientific men in London a 
few years ago, namely, that the old belief that vegetation grown 
without light can have no color is a mistake. I saw that these 
Chinese vegetables grown in perfect darkness were green in color. 
The catacombs are artificially warmed and the vegetables are care- 
fully watered. There are hundreds of square miles of these under- 
ground truck gardens in China. 

" The watering of crops on the surface is carried on in a very 
ingenious manner. The whole country is netted by small canals 



320 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

bringing water from the Pei-Ho river. A long pole is set up on 
the bank of the canal, with a cross beam slung near the top, having 
a bucket at one end and a counter-weight at the other. By manip- 
ulating the weight a man can fill a great bucket of water easily. 
The earth is divided off in small squares about the size of a room, 
with an earthen dike around each. The farmer tips the bucket 
enough to fill one of these squares with an inch of water and then 
waters the next square and so on. 

" The farmer starts out in the morning with two or three suits 
of clothes on. As the sun gets warmer they take them off, until 
shortly after noon they have nothing on. Then they begin to put 
them on again, and by sunset they are as completely clothed as 
when they started out. They never seem to be sweating or hust- 
ling, but are always at work. They use plows so small that they 
can carry them on their backs. Their fertilizers are so strong that 
they can make crops grow on any ground." 

ORIGIN OF THE SILK INDUSTRY. 

The first Chinese were sheep raisers. Their historical docu- 
ments refer to the governors of provinces as " pastors" and " herds- 
men,'' and from herdsmen they quickly became an agricultural 
people. One of their early Emperors, Chin-nung, invented the 
plow. Gill says : 

" The plowing of China is very poor and unscientific. They 
scarcely do more than scratch the surface of the ground ; and in- 
stead of the straight lines so dear to the eye of an English farmer, 
the ridges and furrows in China are as crooked as serpents. Hence 
it is difficult to understand how the Chinese have acquired such a 
high reputation among Europeans for scientific farming. The 
real secret of their success lies in the care they take that nothing 
is wasted. In many districts they use no other manure than the 
sewerage of the towns, but not one particle of this is lost." 

Silk, for which China is world-renowned, is manufactured from 
fibers produced by the mulberry silk-moth. The Chinese name 
for the silk worm is " si." The silk industry originated in China 
and according to native records it has existed there from a very 



AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 321 

remote period. Tile Empress Se-ling-slie, wife of the famous Em- 
peror Hwang-te (2640 B.C.) encouraged the cultivation of the mul- 
berry tree, the rearing of the worms and the reeling of silk. She 
is said to have devoted herself personally to the care of silk worms. 
She is credited by the Chinese with the invention of the loom. 
Chinese ancient literature testifies not only to the antiquity but to 
the importance of sericulture and to the care and attention bestowed 
on it by royal and noble families. The Chinese guarded the secrets 
of their valuable art with vigilant jealousy and there is no doubt 
that many centuries passed before the culture spread beyond the 
country of its origin. 

Japan received its knowledge of the silk worm and its product 
through Corea, but not before the early part of the third century. 
One of the ancient books of Japan states that about 300 a.d. some 
Coreans were sent from Japan to China to engage competent people 
to teach the art of weaving and preparing silk goods. They 
brought with them four Chinese girls who instructed the court and 
the people in the art of plain and figured weaving. The Japanese 
erected a temple to the honor of these pioneer silk weavers. Great 
efforts were made to encourage the industry which from that period 
grew into one of national importance. 

SILK-WORM INTRODUCED IN INDIA. 

At a later period the knowledge of the silk worm traveled to 
India. According to tradition the eggs of the insect and the seed 
of the mulberry tree were carried to India by a Chinese princess 
concealed in the lining of her head dress. The eggs of the silk 
worm are hatched out by artificial heat at a period when the mul- 
berry leaves are ready for the feeding of the larvae. The eggs are 
very minute — a hundred weigh about a grain. These eggs are 
placed in trays over which paper, through which holes have been 
punched, is placed. The worms burst their shell and creep through 
these holes to the light. The rearing houses in which the worms 
are fed are large, clean and well ventilated. The worms endure 
variations of temperature from sixty-two to seventy-eight degrees. 

Silk is the strongest, most lustrous and valuable of textile 
21 



322 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

fibers. The thread is composed of several finer threads drawn by 
the silk worm from two large organs or glands containing a viscid 
substance, which extend along a great part of the body and termin- 
ate in two spinnorets at the mouth. With this substance the silk 
worm envelopes itself, forming its cocoon. Raw silk is produced 
by the operation of winding off several of these cocoons at the same 
time, after they have been immersed in hot water (to soften the 
natural gum on the filament) on a common reel, thus forming one 
smooth even thread. 

Before it is fit for weaving it is converted into one of three forms 
— singles, tram or organzine. Singles is formed of one of the 
reeled threads, twisted in order to give it strength and firmness. 
Tram is formed of two or more threads twisted together, and is 
commonly used in weaving. Organzine, or thrown silk, is formed 
by twisting together two or more threads or singles, the twisting 
being done in the contrary direction to that of the singles. In the 
province of Shantung a soft, unbleached, washing silk is woven 
from cocoons of a wild silk worm which feeds on a scrub oak. 

GREATEST SILK PRODUCING COUNTRY. 

China and Japan only export their excess growth, silk weaving 
being carried on and native silk worn to such an extent in both 
countries. China stands first as a silk producing country, yielding 
thirty-five per cent, of the entire supply. In south Manchuria the 
silk worm is cultivated, but not to as great an extent as in the 
southern province of Sechuen. Here silk is so common as an 
article of dress that on gala days more than half of the inhabitants 
are clothed in this fabric. In some instances the silk is coarser 
than that produced in or near the cities of Hangchow and Soo-chow 
near Shanghai. It is stated that when this coarser silk is used to 
make Chinese satins it can only be employed in the manufacture 
lengthwise and not horizontally, in order to hide its coarseness. 

Most of the Sechuen silk is made for local consumption. The 
silk manufactured in the looms of Soo-chow, mentioned above, is 
famous all over the Empire. On the occasion of the marriage of 
the late Emperor Tung-che, large orders were received by the 



AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 823 

manufacturers in that city for silken goods to be bestowed as impe- 
rial presents and to be converted into wedding garments. 

MONGOLIANS ARE HERDSMEN. 

Few of the Mongolians have turned to the cultivation of the 
land. Nearly all of them are still exclusively occupied with their 
herds of camels, cattle and horses, and their flocks, mostly of fat- 
tailed sheep. Their live stock are more important to them than 
their families. They cannot understand that there can be any 
human beings so forsaken of heaven as not to possess domestic 
animals. All the work falls on the women and children, who not 
only tend the herds, but also manufacture the household utensils, 
saddles, arms, embroidered robes, tents, felts, camel-hair cordage 
and other articles of camp life. 

This aversion to agriculture does not apply to the inhabitants 
of southern Manchuria. Here the Chinese breed swine, and culti- 
vate wheat, barley, maize, millet and the yellow pea. The hot 
summers enable them to grow a species of indigo, besides cotton 
and the vine, carefully protecting the roots with straw and earth 
during the cold season. The imperial edicts against opium are a 
dead letter in Manchuria and the bright bloom of the poppy is 
everywhere intermingled with other crops. Manchurian tobacco is 
famous throughout the Empire, and the Manchus still remain the 
greatest smokers in China. In the Usuri valley ginseng is culti- 
vated by the Chinese peasants and is sold for large sums. The 
Manchus call ginseng " orotha," or first of plants. The best grapes 
in China are found in the northern part of the province of Shansi. 
From these grapes the inhabitants make a good wine. The method 
of making the wine was introduced by the early Roman Catholic 
missionaries. 

The industrious character of the people of the lower Yang-tze- 
kiang basin is revealed in the allies they have procured for them- 
selves in the animal kingdom. Like the English in mediaeval 
times, they have domesticated the cormorant, turning to account 
its skill at fishing. These birds are furnished with an iron collar 
to prevent them from swallowing the fish. They are then trained 



324 AGRICULTURE THE GREAT INDUSTRY. 

to dart from the junks to the bottom of the river, returning each 
time with a fish in their bills. After the day's labor, they roost in 
regular rows along both sides of the boat, thus maintaining its 
equilibrium. In other places otters are employed in the same way, 
and pisciculture, a recent invention in Europe, has been practiced 
for centuries in China. Dealers in the fry traverse every part of 
Kiang-si, supplying the tanks where the fish are reared, and rap- 
idty fattened for market. Some of the processes of this remarkable 
industry are still unknown in the West. 

Agriculture, holding the foremost place of all pursuits in 
China, the Emperor himself is regarded as the first husbandman 
of the Empire. Near Ningpo are the plains renowned in the his- 
tory of Chinese agriculture where the Emperor Shun is tradition- 
ally supposed to have guided the handle of a plow drawn by an 
elephant over forty centuries ago. 



CHAPTER XX. 
Relation of Tea to China. 

Discovery of the Herb— Effect Upon the Natives— Quantity Annually Raised— Great Tea 
Districts— Revenue Yielded the People— Effect Upon the Western World— Extent of 
the Traffic in Tea— Russian Control of Tea Trade— Chinese Methods of Drinking— 
Other Drinks. 

AT the outside estimate, tea has not been used in China for 
more than fifteen centuries, or since about the sixth century 
when there was a great revival in the literary and social life 
of the Empire, which for 500 years preceding, had suffered greatly 
from internal dissensions. The curious legends and fables attached 
to the story of the discovery of tea will be given in detail later on. 
But it is a mistaken notion to suppose that the herb is universally 
used in the Empire. Despite the fact that China is the home of tea 
there are thousands and millions of Chinamen who cannot afford to 
buy a cupful of it. Reaching that part of the Empire near the 
Manchuria division line the traveler discovers that only the rich 
can afford to indulge in tea which comes to them from the basin of 
the Yang-tse-kiang — the region of the Yellow lands. Here the 
poorer classes who cannot afford to buy tea for themselves prepare 
various decoctions in which but a tiny portion of the precious leaf 
forms a part. So great is the poverty in China that in the tea 
growing provinces peasants who work in the fields substitute for it 
decoctions from willow bark, or drinks made from leaves gathered 
in the thickets. It is too unfortunately true that owing to the 
chicanery of many merchants at Shanghai and other tea ports, 
these thicket leaves often reach Europe and America as pure tea. 

What is called " brick tea " is prepared for the Tibetan and 
Mongolian markets. A description given of its manufacture states 
that the bricks are made of green and black tea, but always from 
the commonest and cheapest leaves. For the black tea the dust 
and sweepings of the establishment are frequently used. When 
this has been collected it is beaten with wooden sticks on a hot iron 

plate until it forms a fine powder, Then it is sifted to separate the 

325 



326 RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

fine, medium and coarse grains. After this it is steamed over boil- 
ing water and then placed in molds, the fine dust in the center and 
the coarse on the edges. These molds are the same as those used 
for making ordinary brick. When the cakes of tea come out of 
them they look like large tiles. 

THE USE OF SOOT. 

" The people who drink this tea like it black. Therefore, 
about a teaspoonful of soot is put into each mold to give it the 
depth of coloring and gloss that attracts the Mongolian purchasers. 
The molds are now put under a powerful press and the covers 
wedged tightly down so that when removed from the press, the 
pressure on the cake is still maintained. After two or three days 
the wedges are driven out. The bricks are removed from the 
molds and each brick is wrapped up separately in a piece of com- 
mon white paper. Baskets, which, when full weigh 130 pounds 
are carefully packed with the bricks and are sent to Tien-Tsin, 
whence they find their way all over Mongolia and up to the borders 
of Russia." 

It appears that this tea can be sold at retail in St. Petersburg 
at a fair profit at the rate of twenty kopecks (a kopeck is worth 
about two-thirds of a United States cent) per pound. It also 
appears that the green tea is not made of such fine stuff, but of 
stalks and leaves. The Mongolians make it by boiling. The 
Russians pay far more for tea in China than do the English and 
this is said to be one of the reasons why the tea drank in Russia is 
considered superior to that offered in London. The laborers 
engaged in the tea fields have for one of their secret societies an 
organization known as the " Pure Tea Set " and this corresponds in 
many respects to a labor union of the United States or England. 
Their scale of wages varies from six to ten cents a day. Their 
food is boiled rice, cabbage and occasionally a little fish. At the 
beginning of every season they fix their rate of pay and this is 
generally lived up to by both sides. Strikes in the tea fields are 
not uncommon. Despite their pale faces, the laborers have great 
niuscular strength and are industrious, 



RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 327 



DISCOVERY OF TEA. 



The Chinese have many curious legends and traditions in 
regard to the discovery of tea. One of these is that the virtues of 
tea were discovered by the mythical Emperor Chin-nung, 2737 
B.C. It is doubtfully referred to in the books of ancient poems 
edited by Confucius, all of which are previous in date to 550 B.C. 
According to another tradition knowledge of tea traveled eastwards 
to and in China, having been introduced in 543 a.d. by Bodhid- 
harma, an ascetic who came from India on a missionary expedition. 
It is certain from the historical narrative of Lo Yu, who lived in 
the Tang dynasty, (618-906 a.d.), that tea was used as a beverage 
in the sixth century, and that during the eighth century its use 
had become so common that a tax was levied on its consumption in 
the fourteenth year of Tih Tsung (793). 

The use of tea in China in the ninth century is known from 
Arab sources. From China a knowledge of tea was carried to 
Japan. The cultivation of tea in Japan was established about the 
beginning of the thirteenth century, the priest Miyoye canying 
the seed from China to Japan, where it was first planted in the 
south island Kiushu. Its use has become universal in Japan and 
home consumption is now so great that there is not much left for 
exportation. 

Linnaeus establishes two species of tea, one supposed to be 
the source of green tea, the other the black tea. In 1843, Mr- 
Robert Fortune found that although the two varieties of tea exist 
in different parts of China, black and green tea are made from the 
leaves of the same plant. It is cultivated in China as an evergreen 
shrub and grows to a height of from three to five feet. The stem 
is bushy with numerous leafy branches. It produces a white flower, 
slightly fragrant. 

No strictly wild tea plants have been discovered in China, 
although in Japan the plant grows wild, so genial are the soil and 
climate of some districts. The leaf of the tame varieties never 
exceeds four inches in length. The plant is hardy and thrives 
under many different conditions of climate. It will live in the open 



328 RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

air in the south of England and withstand some amount of frost 
when it receives a sufficient amount of summer heat. For a lux- 
uriant growth, though, a warm, moist climate is necessary, and rains 
must be frequent and copious. 

Tea is more or less cultivated for local consumption in all the 
provinces of China except the extreme north, but the regions from 
which it is exported are embraced within the provinces in the 
southeast — Kwangtung, Fokien, Kiang-se, Che-kiang, Kiang-su. 
The manufacture of black tea is chiefly confined to the more south- 
erly of these provinces, the green tea country lying to the north. 
The methods employed in cultivating the plant and in making tea 
in China differ widely in various districts, and the tea retained for 
native use — especially the high class fancy teas which are never 
seen abroad — undergo special manipulation. 

The teas exported are of three classes — black, green and brick. 
Young plants are not ready for picking until they are three years 
old. At this time they have developed young shoots. These 
tender shoots with leaf buds and expanding leaves are gathered for 
the manufacture of tea. The best quality of tea is made from the 
youngest buds. Under favorable circumstances the tea plant sends 
forth a fresh crop of tender young shoots from twenty to twenty- 
five times in the course of its growing and picking season, which 
lasts about nine months. 

ANNUAL YIELD OF TEA PER PLANT. 

The average annual yield per plant is variable, but may be 
stated at about one-fifth of a pound of finished tea. As each acre 
of a garden holds from one thousand and five hundred to one thou- 
sand and six hundred mature plants, the yield per acre may be 
from three hundred to three hundred and fifty pounds per annum. 

There are four gatherings of the leaves during the year — the 
first early in April, the second at the beginning of May, the third 
in July and the fourth in August or September. The most fra- 
grant and valuable crop is the first picking. The crop becomes 
less valuable at each picking. The names distinguishing the com- 
mercial qualities of tea are almost entirely of Chinese origin. The 



RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 329 

following list represents the ordinary series of qualities beginning 
with the finest : 

Black tea — flowery pekoe ; orange pekoe ; pekoe ; pekoe sou- 
chong ; souchong ; congou ; bohea. 

Green tea — gunpowder ; imperial ; hyson ; young hyson ; hyson 
skin ; caper. 

Many other names occur in the trade denoting teas of special 
qualities or districts, such as oolong, (black dragon), and twankay 
from the district of that name in the province of Kiang-si. Scented 
teas also form a special class of Chinese produce. In scenting the 
finished tea, either black or green is mixed with odoriferous flowers 
and left in a heap until the tea is fully impregnated with the odor. 
The two substances are then separated by sifting and the tea is 
immediately packed and excluded from the air. Green tea is pre- 
pared by a rapid rolling and drying of the leaves. Immediately 
after picking, the leaves are sweated and softened for rolling by an 
exposure to a brisk heat. 

THE CULTURE OF TEA. 

They are then rolled and spread out in the sun until they take 
a blackish tinge, after which they are rolled again. This rolling 
and exposure may be repeated a third time. When the rolling is 
completed the tea is placed in a highly heated pan in which it is 
stirred about until the mass becomes too hot to be worked by hand. 
It is then packed in a canvass bag in which it is beaten by a heavy 
flat stick to consolidate it and in this condition left for a night. 
The next day it is again put in a pan highly heated, which is 
gradually reduced in temperature during the nine hours of the 
operation, an incessant stirring and tossing being kept up the whole 
time. During this operation the green color of the tea is developed. 

The leaves of black tea are exposed to the sun and air on cir- 
cular trays and treated as hay, during which a fermentation is sup- 
posed to take place in conjunction with a volatile oil. Various 
flavors are thus produced. During this change the leaves become 
flaccid and slightly tinged or spotted with red or brown coloring 
matter and give out a peculiar odor. A certain change in this 



330 RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

odor is watched for by the workmen, this being an indication that 
the roasting ninst not be delayed. They are then roasted in an 
iron vessel and afterwards rolled with the hands, to express their 
juices. They are finally dried in sieves placed over a charcoal fire 
in drying tubes during which the leaves are frequently taken from 
the fire and turned until completely dried. It is in this last stage 
of the process that the leaves turn black. This change of color is 
mainly due to the process of manipulation previous to roasting and 
not to the action of heat. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF TEAS. 

At a very early period in the European history of tea the prob- 
able effects of its use on the health and morals of the population 
attracted attention and a great deal was written hostile to its effects. 
In 1678 Mr. Henry Savile wrote to his uncle Mr. Secretary Coven- 
try in reproof of his friends who " call for tea instead of pipes after 
dinner — a base unworthy Indian practice, — which I must ever 
admire your most Christian family for not admitting. The truth 
is all nations are growing so wicked as to have some of these filthy 
customs." In 1722 a medical authority wrote: 

" Among other novelties there is one whioh seems to be par- 
ticularly the cause of the hypochondriac disorders and is generally 
known as thea or tea. It is a drug which of late has very much 
insinuated itself, as well into our diet as regales and entertain- 
ments, though its occupation is not less destructive to the animal 
economy than opium or some other drugs which we have at present 
learned to avoid." 

Another medical authority wrote : 

" The first rise of this pernicious custom is often owing to the 
weakness and debility of the system brought on by the daily habit 
of drinking tea ; the trembling hand seeks a temporary relief in 
some cordial in order to refresh and excite again the enfeebled sys- 
tem, whereby such persons almost necessarily fall into a habit of 
intemperance." 

x\uthorities are not yet agreed as to the exact physiological 
influence and value of tea. The fact that theine is the characteris- 



RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 331 

tic constituent of coffee serves to show that the alkaloid satisfied 
some craving of the human system although what its effect is has 
not yet been determined. It is undisputable that tea drinking 
forms an agreeable means of imbibing the proportion of water 
necessary in human nutrition. Being taken hot, it communicated 
to the system a diffused warm glow. As used by Western commu- 
nities, it is a medium of taking, in the form of sugar and cream, no 
inconsiderable amount of real nutriment. Its action is stimulating 
and invigorating, and, owing to the presence of tannin, more or less 
astringent. The excessive use, especially of green tea, affects the 
nervous system unfavorably. The exhilaration caused by the mod- 
erate use of tea is not followed by depression, as is the case with 
alcoholic stimulants. 

TEA DRINKING HABITS. 

The quantity of tea annually consumed in China has been 
estimated as high as two thousand millions of pounds annually, 
being at the rate of a little more than five pounds per head of the 
population. Considering the tea drinking habits of the people the 
estimate is by no means extravagant. In this light it may be safe to 
affirm that the amount of tea used yearly throughout the world 
reaches the gigantic total of twenty-five hundred millions of pounds. 
The revenue thus afforded the Chinese averages millions of dollars 
per annum. Hankow is the chief centre of the tea trade in China. 
The foreign settlement may be said to depend on the oscillations in 
the current prices of this article. The arrival of the first crop is 
the signal for a general commotion ; crowds swarm in the ware- 
houses and counting-houses, steamers are moored along the em- 
bankment, night and day streets and squares are alive with the busy 
throng. All this bustle lasts for three months during the very 
hottest and most relaxing season of the }^ear. 

The excitement grows to fever heat towards the end of May, 
when the vessels bound for foreign countries have completed their 
cargoes. The betting on the quickest homeward passage earns for 
the winner not merely an empty triumph, but double the ordinary 
freight. After the start silence reigns in the European quarter, 



332 RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

which is then deserted except by a few clerks and employes. The 
total amount of tea purchased in Hankow during the season of 
1899 was 942,961 half chests, Russia taking 771,000 half chests, 
and other countries 171,961 half chests. To America and Canada 
were exported 4,462,478 pounds of black tea and 5,954,725 pounds 
of green tea. The total amount of tea exported to America and 
Canada from Hankow for the season 1899 was 10,417,203. Nearly 
all of this tea was of the cheaper grades. To Great Britain were 
exported 9,348,918 pounds of black tea, 932,148 pounds of green 
tea making a total of 10,281,062 pounds. The introduction of 
machinery for the preparation of tea into China has made little 
progress. The Chinese do not take kindly to it, declaring that 
there is enough money to be made out of tea in preparing it in the 
old way. 

RUSSIA CONTROLS CHINESE TEA TRADE. 

Next to the English the Russians are the greatest tea drinkers 
in the world. English tea comes chiefly from Ceylon and India, 
while the Samovars of Russia are filled exclusively with Chinese 
leaves. This, with the exception of a small amount from Fu Chow, 
comes entirely from Hankow, a treaty port six hundred miles up 
the Yang-tze-kiang river. Here the Russian tea industry is in the 
hands of four leading firms, three of which make brick tea and 
another smaller concern, whose efforts are spent in the leaf tea 
industry exclusively. 

Chinese buyers, under the supervision of competent compra- 
dores, travel through the neighboring provinces and buy the 
choicest crops. These compradores, or solicitors, transact most of 
the business between the foreigners and the Chinese. They make 
exhorbitant commissions, but these are winked at as necessary- 
evils. The head compradore of one of the large Russian houses 
has made over $1,000,000 during the past eight years by this 
means alone, but he has saved them several times this amount by 
judicious buying. 

The best tea that reaches Hankow is bought by the Russians 
at any price. During the season large crowds of farmers and 



RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 333 

laborers potir into Hankow, and the city presents a lively scene, 
while the leaves are packed or pressed into bricks and transferred 
to the large ocean steamships, which have come np the river ex- 
pressly to carry their savory cargo back to Russia. The brick tea 
and the choice grades of leaves are shipped either by boat or land 
to Tien-Tsin and Tung Chow, there to be loaded on camels for 
their overland journey to Mongolia, Siberia and Russia. Some is 
also shipped directly north through Shansi to Kiakhta, since the 
finest tea is said to lose flavor during an ocean voyage. 

CAMEL CARAVANS TRANSPORT THE TEA. 

The camel caravans which transport the tea overland form a 
weird sight to a stranger. During the summer, owing to the ex- 
cessive heat, they travel by night and rest during the day. Cara- 
vans of a thousand people and camels are no unusual sight. They 
travel in sets, four camels to a set, with a driver for each set. The 
last camel has a bell attached to him and this enables the next set 
following to keep in line. Native tea merchants coming to Hankow 
at this time to transact their business meet for social intercourse 
at the magnificent tea guild. Here everything is prepared for their 
enjoyment, and a private theatre has been filled with the best 
talent. 

The tea is rolled and dried where it is grown, but most of that 
shipped to Russia is in the form of bricks which require heady and 
expensive machinery for their manufacture. The largest brick tea 
factory in the world is located at Hankow. Its owners live in 
Warsaw and are fabulously wealthy. They manufacture only when 
orders are on hand, but nevertheless they are kept running nearly 
the year around. Brick tea is made in two forms. 

The finer quality is pressed into small flat cakes with ridges for 
breaking, and is about the same shape as our cakes of chocolate. 
This is neatly wrapped in tin foil and sold in Russia and to some 
extent in Germany. The cheaper grades of tea are made into 
bricks weighing from one and one-fourth pinculs (133-166 pounds). 
One cake is the average load for a man and two for a camel. In 
Mongolia and Russian Turkestan these bricks pass as a sort of 



334 RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

currency and form a staple article of food when mixed with other 
ingredients into a thick soup. 

WAGES PAID. 

The laborers receive about four cents in gold a day during the 
season and for this sum there is no trouble in getting plenty of 
help. These men club together as a rule and have their meals of 
rice and curries in common. It is generally remarked that when 
they arrive each has a pet dog, but that these are rarely with them 
when they return. The city of Hankow has a population of over 
40,000 and together with Wu Chang and Nan Yung, across the 
river, over 2,000,000. The European population located in the 
British concessions, of course, forms but a small portion, but these 
live in well built houses and support a fine club, library, race course 
and golf links. 

The tea trade of Hankow is now falling off somewhat owing 
to the competition of the machine-rolled tea of Ceylon. It is gen- 
erally acknowledged, however, that the tea of this portion of China 
has a finer flavor than the latter, and it is certainly preferred by 
the Russians. In America very little Hankow tea is found, since 
most American tea is grown around Ningpo on the coast and in 
Formosa. The tea shop is a national institution in China. The 
interior of these shops are richly decorated. Here the Chinaman 
can sit and sip his tea to his heart's content. The poor classes are 
unable to patronize these shops. 

Tea, more than arms, has been the instrument by which the 
Chinese have conquered the Tibetans, and " to invite the lamas, or 
priests, to a cup of tea," has become a proverbial expression, indi- 
cating the means employed by the Mandarins to bribe the Tibetan 
rulers. For this reason care is taken by the imperial government 
to prevent the introduction of the Assam tea, which is less esteemed 
than that of China. Still the natives of the state of Pomi have 
preserved their right to free trade with India and import the pro- 
hibited article in yearly increasing quantities. The annual im- 
portation from China is estimated by Baber at about 10,000,000 
pounds, representing from about $1,458,000 to $1,701,000. 



RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 335 

The exchanges with India are at present insignificant and the 
little received from that country conies mainly through Nepal and 
Kashmir. Thus there is a constant flow of Indian money in Tibet, 
which is gradually replacing the bricks of tea hitherto used as cur- 
rency. Tea is also indispensable to the Mongolians. They never 
drink cold water to which they attribute a malignant influence. 
Besides tea they drink kumis, mare's milk, and too often the vile 
brandies supplied them by the Russians. 

Of the cultivation of tea in Japan Mossman says : 
" In Japan the cultivation of tea is more important than the 
silk industry and its cultivation and manufacture employ a greater 
number of people than does the manufacture of silk. Tea of the 
finer qualities require special care in the cultivation. The planta- 
tions are situated remote from the habitations of man, and as much 
as possible from all other crops, lest the delicacy of the tea should 
suffer from smoke, impurity, or emanations of any kind. Manure 
of a special kind is applied to the roots, consisting of dried fish, 
like anchovies, and a liquor expressed from the mustard seed. No 
trees surround the plantations, for they must enjoy the unob- 
structed beams of the morning sun, and the plants thrive best upon 
well-watered hillsides. The plant is pollarded to render it more 
branchy, and therefore more productive, and must be five years old 
before the leaves are gathered. 

JAPANESE METHOD OF PREPARATION. 

" The process of harvesting the leaves, or rather of storing 
the tea harvest, is one of extreme nicety. The leaves of the finer 
and the coarser teas are sorted as they are plucked, and no more of 
a kind are gathered in a day than can be dried before night. There 
are two modes of drying, called the dry and wet process. In the 
one the leaves are at once roasted in an iron pan, then thrown upon 
a mat and rolled by the hand. During the whole operation, which 
is repeated five or six times, or until the leaves are quite dry, a yel- 
low juice exudes. This is called the dry preparation. 

In the wet process the leaves are first placed in a vessel over 
the steam of boiling water, where they remain until they are with- 



336 RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 

ered. They are then rolled by hand and dried in the iron roasting 
pan. When thus prepared, less of the yellow juice exuding, the 
leaves retain a lighter green color and more of fine flavor. When 
fresh dried, the tea is delicately susceptible of odors and requires 
to be carefully guarded from their influence. The finest qualities 
are packed in jars in order to retain their aroma." 

The qualities of a sample of tea and its commercial value can 
only be accurately determined by infusion and trial by a skilled 
tea-taster. Certain general and external appearances which indi- 
cate the class of tea are obvious enough. While it is impossible to 
define the conditions which determine the commercial value of an 
ordinary black tea, Colonel Money lays down the following rules : 
the darker the liquor the stronger the tea and the nearer the ap- 
proach of the infused leaf to a uniform brown, the purer the flavor. 
In infusion black tea of good quality should yield a clear bright 
brown liquor, emitting a subdued fragrance, in taste it should be 
mild and sweet. Green tea yields a light colored liquor of high 
fragrance, but thin, sharp, and somewhat rasping in taste as com- 
pared with black tea. 

INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 

No mention of tea is made by Marco Polo and no knowledge 
of the substance appears to have reached Europe until after the 
establishment of intercourse between Portugal and China in 1518. 
The Portugese, however, did little towards the introduction of the 
herb into Europe. Early in the seventeenth century the Dutch 
learned from the Chinese the habit of tea drinking and brought it 
to Europe. It was not until the middle of the century, however, 
that the English began to use tea. They received their supplies 
from Java until in 1686 when they were driven out of the island by 
the Dutch. During the year 1658 the following advertisement 
appeared in a London paper. 

" That excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink 
called by the Chineans Thea, by other nations Tay, alias Tee, is 
sold at the Sultaness Head, a cophee-house in Sweetings Rents, b}^ 
the Royal Exchange, London." 



RELATION OF TEA TO CHINA. 33T 

That tea was a novelty in England in 1660 is proved by 
Pepys's often-quoted statement that on September 25th of that 
year, " I did send for a cup of tea, a China drink, of which I had 
never drunk before." In 1664 the East India Company presented 
the King with two pounds and two ounces of " thea," and two 
3^ears afterwards with another parcel containing twenty-two and 
three-fourths pounds. Both parcels appear to have been purchased 
on the Continent. Not until 1677 is the Company recorded to 
have taken any steps towards the importation of tea. The order 
then given to their agents was for " teas of the best kind to the 
amount of one hundred dollars." But their instructions were 
exceeded, for the quantity imported in 1678 was four thousand 
seven hundred and thirteen pounds, a quantity which glutted the 
market for several years. The annals of the Company record that, 
in February, 1684, the directors wrote as follows to Madras : 

THE FIRST TEA SOLD. 

" In regard thea is grown to be a commodity here, and we 
have occasion to make presents therein to our great friends at court, 
we would have you to send us yearly five or six canisters of the 
very best and freshest thea." 

For several years the quantities imported were very small, and 

consisted of the finer sorts. The first direct purchase in China 

was made at Amoy, the teas previously obtained by the Company's 

agents having been purchased at Madras and Surat, where it was 

brought by Chinese junks after the expulsion of the British from 

Java by the Dutch. During the closing years of the century the 

amount brought over was on the average about 20,000 pounds a 

year. The amount imported increased each year until now it is 

about hve pounds per head per annum. The habit of tea drinking 

does not grow in America as it is found to do in the British Isles, 

but remains practically the same each year. 
22 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Cheapest Manual Labor Known. 

More Laborers than any Other Nation in the World — Scale of Wages Paid— Food Required 
for Sustenance— Quick to Imitate Foreigners — Value as Competitors— Virtual Slavery 
of Labor— Legislation Against Chinese Labor — Fear of Starvation — Intelligence of 
the Working Masses. 

THE ablest treatment of the labor question in China, from the 
point of view of a Chinaman, has been given by Li-Teschung, 
former superintendent of the Secret Cabinet in Pekin. Writ- 
ing upon this subject, and for American readers, he said : 

" The labor question — or, perhaps, more precisely expressed, 
the socialistic question — is at the bottom of China's troubles. An 
impartial investigation into the causes of the present unlawful up- 
risings will show that. 

" Three years ago the Tien-Tsin-Pekin railway line was 
opened ; for the last twelvemonth or longer it has been in active 
operation, while smaller auxiliary or branch roads have sprung 
into existence at intervals of from thirty or forty days all along. 
And as the railway net spreads, and as new connections by rail 
are constantly made, the labor market becomes daily more demoral- 
ized — that is, opportunities for work grow less and less. 

" Traffic between the coast and the metropolis, and especially 
between the commercial centers, Tien-Tsin and Pekin, is enormous ; 
hundreds of thousands of people lived by it from time immemorial. 
They found their daily bread on the land and waterways as carters, 
carriers, forwarders and helpers generally. The horse owner, 
drayman, or expressman, the caravan leader, driver, camel, donkey 
and mule attendant ; the ship owner, boatman, sailor — all made a 
modest but assured living along the road, as their fathers had 
done before them. They had the stock, the custom, the experi- 
ence. They were good for this business and for no other. 

" Then there were the inn and boarding-house keepers sup- 
ported by the passing crowd and dependent upon it ; the wagon- 
338 



Cheapest manual labor known. 339 

makers, sailmakers, saddlers and feed merchants. The 'bus carry- 
all, and livery stable people likewise transported passengers. The 
number of officials alone who go to Pekin half a dozen times or 
oftener per year reaches into the thousands, and the masses of 
candidates for government positions going to the capital for their 
examination are ten times greater. 

MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD. 

" And as the signal for the first train from Taku to Tien-Tsin- 
Pekin was given all these industrials, merchants, owners of draft 
animals and of other means of transportation ; all these drivers, 
eating-house keepers, these workmen and helpers, lost their means 
of livelihood — lost it without hope of retrieving their fortune in 
stock or other work. 

" The branch road robbed another class of poorly-paid but 
contented people of their only chance of keeping body and soul 
together. The branch roads wiped out the coal-carrier, the poor 
devil who on his own or his donkey's back transported black dia- 
monds to the consumer, often covering hundreds of miles, plodding 
patiently for a trifle. European and American journals have often 
made fun of this antidiluvian way of carrying coal, as they call it, 
but it suited the people who lived by it well enough. 

" The unemployed — at least the chronic unemployed — were 
unknown in China before the arrival of the steam engine and 
freight car, but for the last twelve or fifteen months the territory 
between the Gulf of Pechili, Changting-Pu, and Pekin has "been 
overrun with them. 

" And the disfranchised men have not been in good humor — 
hungry people generally are not. Still, they might have continued 
to suffer patiently — for at bottom the Chinaman loves peace and 
is capable of much endurance — if it had not been for the mili- 
tant class of must-be-idlers. For the railway hurt the professional 
private police, also known as Boxers, no less than the industrial 
and laboring classes already mentioned. 

" In this country the Boxers would probably pass under the 
name of athletes — that's what they really are — strong men drilled 




F. GUTEKUNS 



WU TING FANG 

CHINESE MINISTER TO WASHINGTON 



CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 341 

" These men unfurled the flag of social war upon which was 
written in large letters : 

" ' Down with the Railways that are Responsible for our 
Starvation ! ' 

" From that to ' Down with the Foreigners, Who Foisted the 
Railroads upon us,' was but a step. 

" To sum up : Fear of starvation roused the anger of the 
Chinese population against a useful innovation ; the bread question 
grew into a political grievance and culminated in the hatred of 
foreigners and in open revolt against the government, for the 
Manchu dynasty is as foreign to the country in Chinese eyes as if 
it were Prussian or Anglo-Saxon. 

" These are facts ; they show conclusively that the greatest 
troubles were caused by unhappy social conditions over which the 
government had no control and which absolutely lacked political 
motive. That the original bread riot or economic movement de- 
veloped into a political movement — that is no reason why its origin 
should be obscured and its motive doubted. 

" The real why and wherefore of the uprising is moreover 
made plain by the fact that the rioters are not content with attack- 
ing foreigners. Their lust for vengeance strikes their own country- 
men as well. And here another aspect of the labor situation comes 
into view : The foreigners, when hiring Chinese labor, prefer to 
employ converts." 

RATES OF WAGES PAID. 

The Chinese laborers are paid less, work harder and are more 
numerous than the laborers of any other country in the world. 
Every town has its hundreds of laborers and every city its thou- 
sands and hundreds of thousands. In the great tea ports laborers 
are paid about four cents in gold a day, and for this sum any num- 
ber of laborers can be obtained. Coolies employed in transporting 
merchandise in the towns removed from waterways, are paid at the 
rate of from five to ten cents per day. This transportation b} T the 
coolies is carried on almost wholty on foot, their wages being so 
low that the horse cannot compete. Laborers engaged in other 



342 CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 

pursuits are paid all the way from four to twelve cents per day 
and on these wages support large families. Rounsevelle Wildman 
says : " The animal and vegetable kingdoms are as open books to 
the most ignorant villagers. Every weed has its use, and no part 
of the animal goes to waste. Two cents a day is a fair estimate 
per head of what it costs to feed 390,000,000 of China's 400,000,000. 
Rice, beans, garden vegetables, supplemented with any kind of 
fish make up their daily diet, and as simple as this is often ten 
mouths have to be fed from a little plot of ground the size of a New 
England farmyard.'' 

THE ECONOMICS OF THE CHINESE. 

He continues : " In discussing the economics of the Chinese 
there is no place where you can stop. After eleven years of exper- 
ience I am amazed every day at some new example. Nothing is 
lost. Every animal is eaten regardless of the cause of its demise. 
The sardine and fruit cans that we extravagantly throw away are 
born again as tin cups and cooking utensils. The weed that cannot 
be eaten is used as fuel to cook the weed that may be edible. In 
the autumn the leaves of trees are gathered by children who are 
too young to labor and pounded into bricks and dried for their 
winter fuel.'' 

With the same care with which they rake the land they scour 
the waters and the beaches for food and explore every inch of the 
beach the moment the tide goes out, no matter what the hour, for 
anything that can be eaten. Mr. Wildman adds : 

" I have watched them on a cold, bitter morning thus gleaning, 
the women carrying their month-old babies on their backs by the 
side of their bags of sea plunder. The chilling water was up to 
the children's bare feet, and a wind was blowing in shore that made 
me turn back on my bicycle and ride a mile to get warm. The 
grinding industry and dwarfing economy of it all was horribl}' 
revolting. If any one benefited by these hardships, in this gener- 
ation or the next, there would be some hope for the betterment of 
the race, but the Chinese coolie lives and dies by rule, as his an- 
cestors have been doing for six thousand years. 



CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 343 

" There are no idle people in China. Yon see coolies and shop- 
keepers sleeping in the streets, to be sure, but that is a part of 
their legitimate rest ; it is not laziness, but a habit that explains 
their wonderful powers of endurance. After a coolie has labored 
perhaps twelve hours to get his burden through congested streets 
to its destination, he calmly sits down in the midst of the bargain- 
ing about it, which is no business of his, and goes to sleep." 

CHINA TO LEAD IN INDUSTRY. 

Harrie Webster writes : " In mechanical skill and ability the 
Chinaman stands exceptionally high. In the foreign shops and 
factories of the East the native artisan compares favorably with the 
workman of any other nation. I refer entirely to western tools, 
methods and machinery. In a broader sense, in the erection of 
bridges, construction of temples, roads, canals, in the wide sense of 
the engineer, the Chinaman compares well with his fellows in 
more civilized lands. Many of his bridges are marvelous not 011I3' 
for their beauty and accuracy of construction, but in the difficulties 
overcome and the solidity of their foundations. Here the China- 
man's characteristic of thoroughness expresses itself. 'The China- 
man builds for all time ; the rest of the world builds for to-day.' ,} 

Professor W. J. McGee, of the Bureau of Ethnology at Wash- 
ington, D. C, in speaking of China and her future position in the 
industrial world, says: 

" Fifty years from now China will be a great manufacturing 
country. Her present territory will be gridironed with railroads ; 
her deposits of coal, which are said to be vast, will be contributing 
millions of tons per annum to the fuel supply of the world, and 
the products of her iron mines will govern market prices in such 
commodities. She will build machine shops and ships, and in cer- 
tain lines of industrial activity, where hand work is indispensible, 
she will be pre-eminent. It seems to me not at all unlikely that 
China may be the shoemaker and clothier of the world half a 
century hence. 

" There is not anything the Chinese cannot do if they are told 
how to do it. Left to themselves the}' would have no industrial 



344 CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 

future. The Chinese brain is not up to an appreciation of indus- 
trial progress ; it does not know how to take hold of industrial 
problems. To-day the Empire is an immense aggregation of stored 
energy waiting to be utilized. During the past ages it has been 
developing a vast population which is capable of doing one-fourth 
the manual labor of the world. Add to this population one-tenth 
of one per cent, of intelligent foreigners and the Chinese will soon 
find themselves in the front rank of progressive nations. They 
have the physical ability and sufficient intelligence to do what they 
are told, besides which they are remarkably capable of industrial 
organization. They can imitate any process and reproduce any 
product. All they need is proper instruction, the requisite control 
and a little time." 

The Chinese industries are many centuries older than those of 
the West, and some of the more important discoveries made in 
Europe towards the close of the Middle Ages have long been known 
to the Chinese. Marco Polo and the early European explorers 
speak of their woven goods, chased metals, and other products. 
But the first trustworthy accounts of the native manufactures was 
not received in Europe until the close of the seventeenth century. 
The missionaries have revealed several manufacturing processes 
and during the nineteenth century numerous technical treatises 
have been translated. " The ready wit and manual skill of the 
Chinese artisans," sa} r s Elisee Reclus, " are not merely perogatives 
of the race, but are also due to the fact that our minute division of 
labor has not yet been introduced amongst them. Every artistic 
object is the work of one artist, who designs, models and paints it. 
In many provinces the peasantry themselves are craftsmen, spin- 
ning and weaving their cottons and linens. They excel especially 
in wickerwork and so closely plaited are their baskets, that they 
serve, like wooden and metal vessels, to hold all kinds of liquids." 

FAMOUS AS EMBROIDERERS. 

Chinese embroiderers, or hoa-hwei, are renowned for the skill 
r.nd perfection of their work. It has been said that " on fabrics of 
marvelous texture and dyed with inimitable shades the Chinese 



CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 345 

embroider with flat silk figures of the natural size, complicated 
scenes, ornaments, birds and flowers, with uneqnaled truthfulness, 
elegance and freshness. In the midst of this rich needle picture 
rise golden dragons, worked either in couchure or low relief, often 
ornamented with spangles and lama." ' 

The Chinese have imitated European wares, and the imple- 
ments, clocks and watches, and other objects made in Canton, 
and exported to all parts of the Empire, are mostly copied from 
specimens introduced from the West. Of the old local industries, 
some have remained unmodified for four thousand years, and these 
may disappear or be replaced, but cannot now be changed. In some 
cases the very processes have been lost, and the best hands now fail to 
produce inlaid bronzes, enamels, or porcelain vases at all compar- 
able with the old specimens preserved in the museums. 

SKILL OF THE NATIVES. 

In the art of dyeing, especially from vegetable saps, the Chinese 
are still our masters, and they possess several colors elsewhere 
unknown. China, like Japan, still maintains its pre-eminence in 
the production of lacquer-ware as well as of ink, while marvelous 
skill is betrayed in the carving of wood, ivory and hard stones. 
The natives display great skill in the preparation of copper, lead, tin, 
zinc, arsenic and silver and gold alloys. From the technical point 
of view many of the Chinese bronzes are very remarkable. Enor- 
mous figures cast in several pieces are put together by ingenious 
processes which insure their solidity, while smaller articles are 
modeled with a perfection that has never been surpassed, except 
perhaps in Japan. 

The superstitious belief of the Chinese people often interferes 
with their mining operations. In the year of 1882 it was reported 
that the government closed the coal mines in the province of Pechili 
on the ground that the works were displeasing to the great earth 
dragon. In a memorial presented to the Emperor b\ r the public 
censor it was complained that the smoke of the foreign machinery, 
which was being used in these mines, disturbed the repose of the 
earth dragon, who in his turn disturbed the spirit of the Empress 



346 CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 

who had died some months previous, and had been buried about a 
hundred miles off. The angry spirit of the departed Empress 
took vengeance by afflicting the members of the imperial house- 
hold with measels. This affliction was directly traceable to the 
coal mines. 

At the present time the Chinese laborer is opposed to the use 
of machinery. Travelers state that intimate contact with the 
civilization of China reveals the fact that all their methods are the 
result of long experience — a survival of the fittest in nearly every 
branch of human needs and conveniences — the experimental stage 
is no more. Thus a different way of doing a piece of work does 
not enter the mind of the Chinese laborer for the reason that all 
other methods have been tried and the present one is the one which 
has proved to be the best. 

Then, too, every man in China is a worker and all branches of 
industry are full. There is always work to do and practical content 
reigns among the workmen. The introduction of machinery would 
upset all these conditions, throw thousands of men out of employ- 
ment, and produce widespread distress. The Chinese laborer is 
industrious, frugal and probably happy. From his point of view 
he has no reason for discontent. 

POWER OF TRADE UNIONS. 

Like other social classes the laboring classes have organized 
extensive unions. These unions often arrange strikes to keep up 
the price of labor and have formed co-operative societies. Their 
power is so great that they nearly always get the better of the 
capitalists, and in many places employers decline to oppose their 
demands at all. They might easily get possession of the whole 
industrial plant of the country, but for the fact that the trades 
unions form so many independent and rival societies. 

These associations subject apprentices to two or three years of 
downright slavery, they constitute a sort of aristocracy of labor, 
weighing heavily on all outsiders, the most fortunate of whom in 
ordinary times are the professional mendicants. Like the traders 
and artisans these mendicants have their recognized unions, with 



CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 347 

statutes, feasts and assemblies. These societies and unions all have 
one tendency and that is to squeeze the non-members. 

The outsider knows but little of the details of these organiza- 
tions, but the foreigner's experience will soon tell him of the use- 
lessness of contesting the action of any workman's union whose 
members refuse to work for him. Without excitement, or any evi- 
dence of dissatisfaction, the coolies working for the foreigner will 
strike, and no trouble will ensue because of attempts of others to 
fill the vacant places, as there are no applicants, and the work 
under way will remain unfinished until by mutual agreement the 
point in dispute has been settled. Strikes in China are seldom 
disorderly, and the boycott feature is never in evidence. 

The coolie is as desirous of obtaining an education as the 
higher classes. " During a recent cruise in Chinese waters," says 
Harrie Webster, " I became much interested in noting the manner 
in which the lowest classes acquired their ability to read and write, 
and the result of several years of observation is that their education 
comes largely through the steady and persistent use of the stray 
minutes of life. As soon as a piece of work is done, while waiting 
for a fresh job, or even standing in line, waiting his turn to deposit 
his package, bale or cask, the coolie plays with a stick or bit of 
bamboo, writing a character over and over, or studies a few charac- 
ters written on a bit of paper brought from a pocket. 

" Thus the minutes of waiting are employed in the acquisition 
of one more tiny bit of knowledge." 

In this way the working masses acquire their education. They 
have good memories, and once a thing is learned it is never forgot- 
ten. The children of the laboring classes have little time for learn- 
ing, being put to work as soon as they are old enough. Their life 
is one of ceaseless toil relieved only by death. 

CHINESE EMIGRATION. 

The distinctive feature of Chinese migration lies in the fact 
that it consists almost exclusively of male adults. Few women are 
seen in America or Australia beyond those that have been specially 
contracted for. None of them have crossed the seas voluntarily, 



348 CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 

and their number is of no account in the general movement. Being 
neither free nor entitled to hold property, the Chinese women can- 
not leave the paternal home without express permission and even. 
in the interior this permission is seldom granted. Male emigration 
has acquired considerable proportions and is now regulated by 
treaty arrangement between the imperial government and foreign 
powers. The immigrants form an important element of the popu- 
lation in many places, where their frugal and industrious habits, 
versatility, and spirit of solidarty, enable them to found flourishing 
communities where others fail. 

THE CHINESE IMMIGRANTS. 

In the countries where they do not compete with the dominant 
race, the Chinese immigrants soon become indispensable. They 
have created prosperity in Singapore and but for them industrial 
and commercial activity would soon be arrested. But elsewhere 
they often come into collision with competitors in the labor market. 
In West Australia the small colonies welcome the Chinese settlers 
to tend the herds and develop a few local industries ; in the more 
prosperous states of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, 
in East Australia, the presence of this frugal, thrifty and laborious 
element is resented — they have too decided an advantage in the 
competition with the European laboring class. 

They gradually monopolize certain industries, such as mining 
washing and domestic service. Their thrift is such that they grow 
rich where others fail. In spite of the treaties, the poll taxes, vex- 
atious measures of all sorts, and in many cases violence and mas- 
sacres, have greatly reduced their numbers, and diverted the stream 
of migration altogether from parts of Australia and California. 
The authorities in the Philippines and Dutch East Indies restrict 
them to certain districts, exclude them from various professions 
and burden them with special taxes and subject them to all kinds 
of obnoxious police regulations. 

"The Chinese coolie in the Philippines, poor, wretched and 
despised, has one good quality. He will work, and that is some- 
thing you cannot say of the native. On the hottest days, while 




PEKIN'S GREAT WALL, AN EARTHEN RAMPART, 50 FEET HIGH, AND 

FACED WITH BRICKS 




DRAWING ROOM OF THE UNITED STATES LEGATION, PEKIN, CHINA, 
WHERE MINISTER CONGER AND FAMILY RESIDED 




THE HARBOR OF HONG KONG, WHICH ADMIRAL DEWEY USED AS HIS 
BASE OF SUPPLIES DURING THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 




A CHINESE MARRIAGE PROCESSION, WITH THE BRIDE IN 
THE SEDAN CHAIR 



CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. §49 

the Filipino sits on his heels in the shadow of a wall of a droop- 
ing banana tree, drowsily smoking a cigarette or soundly sleeping 
the honrs away, the coolie works on. Bare headed, bare, in fact, 
altogether, saving for very short and scant blue cotton breeches 
which he is compelled to wear — he saws lumber, drives the buffalo 
carts and works from daylight until dark at all kinds of the hardest 
labor. He is used as a pack animal and carries weights, by means 
of the bamboo pole over his shoulder, that seem impossible. 

" I have seen pianos, huge packing boxes, trunks, furniture of 
all kinds, heavy lumber and stoves, fastened to the center of a bam- 
boo pole and carried by two coolies. And the poles, resting on the 
shoulders seemed to be cutting through flesh and bone and making 
great dingy red marks. The coolies live about as well as the lower 
class of natives. A dozen sleep in one room, or twenty if the room 
is large enough. They are not clean. Once in awhile you see 
them wetting their feet because the sun and hot stones have blis- 
tered them. Their heads are bare, no matter how intense the sun's 
rays are. They live on pork, rice and stale fish, and are more or 
less diseased in body on account of their food and their ways of 
living." 

UNITED STATES' TREATIES WITH CHINA. 

In 1863 a treaty was made between the United States and 
China in which the former invited the Chinaman to this country. 
The treaty began as follows : 

" The United States of America and the Emperor of China cor- 
dially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change 
his home and allegiance ; and also the mutual advantage of the 
free migration and emigration of their citizens and subjects, re- 
spectively, from the one country to the other for the purposes of 
curiosity, of trade, or as permanent residents." 

As a result of this treaty the Chinese poured into this country 
and in 1867 the Chinese population of the Pacific slope was formid- 
able and portentous. The American laboring man objected. In 
the mines the Chinaman was rapidly taking his place. They were 
peaceful, could live on ten cents a day, did not drink, were not 



350 CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWtf. 

members of labor unions, never asked questions, and, while called 
barbarians by their employers, were regarded as highly superior in 
every respect to the American coal miner. The objections became 
so great that the government was obliged to send a special embassy 
to Pekin to request a modification of the treaty. The first article 
of the modified treaty reads : 

" Whenever, in the opinion of the United States, the coming 
of Chinese laborers to the United States or their residence therein, 
affects or threatens to affect the interests of that country, or to 
endanger the good order of that country, or of any locality within 
the territory thereof, the government of China agrees that the gov- 
ernment of the United States may regulate, limit, or suspend such 
coming or residence, but may not absolutely prohibit it." 

EXCLUSION OF CHINESE LABOR. 

The result of this treaty was a decrease in Chinese immigra- 
tion. Up to this time China and the United States had been on 
terms of cordiality, but the new treaty did not satisfy the anti- 
Chinese party on the Pacific coast, and a series of outrages was 
begun. In 1882 Congress took action on the modified treaty, and 
passed an act, the first section of which is as follows : 

" That from and after the expiration of ninety days after the 
passage of this Act, the coming of Chinese laborers to the United 
States be, and the same is, hereby suspended for ten years ; and 
during such suspension it shall not be lawful for any Chinese 
laborers to come, or having so come after the expiration of ninety 
days, to remain within the United States." 

The records show that three years after the Chinese Restric- 
tion Act was put in force 40,222 Chinese had returned to China, 
and but 18,704 had entered the United States. In regard to this 
act Wu Ting Fang, the Chinese minister at Washington says : — 

" Since the law and the treaty forbid the coming of Chinese 
laborers I must do all I can to restrict their immigration. I 
should, however, like to call attention to the fact that the Chinese 
Exclusion Act, as enforced, scarcely accomplishes the purpose for 
which it was passed. It aimed to provide for the exclusion of Chi- 



CHEAPEST MANUAL LABOR KNOWN. 351 

Hese laborers only, while freely admitting all others. As a matter 
of fact, the respectable merchant, who wonld be an irreproachable 
addition to the population of any country has frequently been 
turned back, whereas, the Chinese high-binders, the riff-raff and 
scum of the nation, fugitives from justice and adventurers of all 
types have too often effected an entrance without much difficulty. 

A SERIOUS MATTER. 

" This is because the American officials at the entrance ports 
are ignorant of Chinese character and dialects and cannot always 
discriminate between the worthy and unworthy. Great misunder- 
standings exist in the United States in regard to Chinese ques- 
tions. There is a current fear that if all restrictions on Chinese 
immigration were removed, the United States would be flooded with 
my countrymen. Inasmuch as China contains some 400,000,000 
inhabitants a wholesale emigration would certainly be a serious 
matter for the people of the country to which they removed. But 
there is no danger of such a calamity befalling the United States. 
Those who view it with alarm only show how profoundly ignorant 
they are of Chinese character. One of the most striking features 
of the conservatism of the Chinese is their absolute horror of 
travel, especially by sea. 

" How, then, is the presence of so many Chinese in America 
explained? By the fact that some forty years ago, when the 
Pacific Railway was building, there was great scarcity of laborers. 
Agents went to China and induced a considerable number of Chi- 
nese to come to this country and assist in the construction of the 
railroad. After their work was done most of them returned home, 
taking their earnings w r ith them. They told their relatives of the 
exceptional opportunities for making money in this country and 
they in turn decided to seek their fortunes here. Were it not for 
this circumstance there would be no more Chinese in this country 
than there are in Europe, where wages are also much higher than 
in China." 



CHAPTER XXII. 
The Deadly Opium. 

First Use of the Drug by the Chinese — English Interest in the Drug — The Opium War 
of 1840 — Opposition of the Chinese— Effect of the Drug on the Nerves — Annual 
Amount Used— World-growth of the Habit— Description of an Opium Den— Influ- 
ence on America. 

THE use of opium was known to the Chinese from the time of 
their first contact with India. For centuries the nation re- 
garded it as a simple medicine for certain ailments, and to be 
used only as such. Not until the close of the eighteenth century 
did its use begin to be common as a dissipation. Then the coun- 
sellors of the Emperor called his attention to the growing practice 
of smoking the drug, and in 1800 an edict was issued forbidding 
the people to exchange their money for the injurious article. 

Unfortunately for China this edict came too late. The habit 
of opium smoking had already fixed itself npon a considerable 
number of the population and the poison continued to spread with 
great rapidity, despite the efforts of the highest officials to check 
its use. At the time that the first edict was issued the East India 
Company, chartered in England, financially supported by English- 
men and endorsed by the English crown, had acquired a large 
trade in the drug, and was selling the same extensively in China. 

Official investigation revealed that the agents of the East 
India Company were frequently Mandarins in the employ of the 
very government that was striving to suppress the traffic. So long 
as the imperial decrees against it stood, there were contraband 
sales of the drug. These were so heavy " that the exports of tea 
and silk remained greatly inferior to the importation of opium ; 
the country began to be drained of its specie which was swallowed 
up in the insatiable abysses of the land beyond the seas." 

Opium is the inspissated juice of the poppy, known as the 
papaver sommferum ) cultivated from early antiquity for the sake of 
this product. The opium exudes as a milky juice from shallow 
incisions made in the partly ripened capsules or heads still on the 
plant. It soon thickens, is collected by scraping, and kneaded into 
352 



THE DEADLY OPIUM. 353 

a homogeneous mass, forming then a reddish-brown substance of 
bitter taste and peculiar odor. The Greeks knew of opium and 
made some use of it, but as an aid to dissipation it was not gen- 
erally used throughout the world before the seventeenth century. 

As a medicine it is considered to be one of the most important 
and its applications most numerous, the chief of them being for 
the relief of pain and the producing of sleep. When taken habit- 
ually the results from its use are disastrous and almost impossi- 
ble of cure. Among physicians it is classed as a stimulant nar- 
cotic, acting almost exclusively on the central nervous system 
when taken internally. 

OPIUM AS A POISON. 

When taken in large quantities it is a powerful narcotic poison, 
producing a coma, characterized by a great contraction of the 
pupils, insensibility and death. The chief active principle of opium 
is morphia, but it also contains at least sixteen other alkaloids, 
some of which have similar properties. Although the opium 
poppy, or the poppy of sleep, can be grown in Europe, the United 
States and other countries, its commercial production is limited to 
countries where labor is cheap and the drug in common use, prin- 
cipally in Turkey, Persia, Egypt, India and China. The western 
market is supplied largely from Asia Minor. The opium export 
trade of India goes principally to China, and has ever since Eng- 
lish guns compelled the Chinese government to acknowledge the 
supremacy of English merchants in this traffic. 

Still, the Chinese government did not easily yield to the domi- 
nating power of the traffic. At least one war was precipitated 
before the imperial government was compelled to yield to the 
opium king. This was what is now called the opium war of 1840. 
During the twenty years preceding this outbreak, Chinese officials 
had been negotiating in various ways with English officials sta- 
tioned in China to secure suppression of the opium traffic. The 
negotiations always ended in nothing. Threats, cajolery, intimi- 
dation, did not check the traffic. The profits to be made by the 
opium merchants were so great that all their cupidity was aroused, 
and they set the government at defiance. 

23 



3£4 THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

DESCRIPTION OF AN OPIUM DEN, 

Just before entering upon a description of the detailed causes 
that led up to the opium war, it will prove interesting to American 
readers to have from the pen of C. V. A. Peel the following word- 
painting of the interior of a Chinese opium smoking house. Mr. 
Peel writes : 

" A Chinese opium den was a surprise to me and very different 
from what I had expected. On entering one night a house bril- 
liantly illuminated outside with red and gold paint and dozens of 
Chinese lanterns, I was at once met by a most courteous gentleman 
speaking a little ' pidgin' English, who led me up into a large well- 
lighted room, the walls of which were beautifully decorated with 
red silk, embroidered with gold. The room was crowded with 
Chinamen, eating, sipping tea, listening to a large orchestra and 
flirting with a number of girls with horribly white painted cheeks, 
red lips, no eyebrows, and deformed feet. I was made to partake 
of some very weak tea, cakes, pomeloe, and other fruits. I was, in 
fact, most hospitably entertained. I ventured to remark to my 
host that it was a very beautiful room, to which he replied : 

" ' House this side belongey numpa one.' 

" I told him that I understood that foreigners were not allowed 
in these houses. My friend answered : 

" ' We no mind you, but we no likee top-side piecee heaven pid- 
gin men/ (meaning missionaries). 

" I drew his attention to a man who stared vacantly at us from 
a corner. My friend remarked : 

" ' Yes, never mindee him, just now hab got water top- side,' 
pointing to his head and giving me to understand that the man 
was mad. 

u A little bottle of scent standing on a table he called ' smellum- 
water.' My host next prepared or ' cooked' an opium pipe for me. 
The pipe consists of a bamboo about a foot long, with a hole three- 
quarters of the way down, into which is pushed a porcelain bowl, 
which is very porous, and in the center of which there is a small 
hole not much bigger than a large pin-hole. The opium, which is 



THE DEADLY OPIUM. 355 

viscous like treacle, is kept in a small tin box, into which is dipped 
a skewer-like instrument. What opium this implement brings up 
is held in a small spirit lamp resting on a table between two 
smoking divans on which smokers recline at full length whilst 
enjoying this fascinating drug. 

" When the opium on the skewer begins to bubble it is smeared 
on to the surface of the pipe bowl, and some is inserted into the 
pin-hole, the skewer being twisted round in order that the hole may 
not be entirely clogged up. The pipe is then ( cooked ' and ready 
to be smoked ; it is held bowl downwards over the flame of the spirit 
lamp all the time the opium is being inhaled. It takes at least ten 
pipes to make one feel drowsy. 

" Whilst smoking the girls timed up their curious fiddles, the 
front of the bodies of which were covered with snake skin, and 
began to sing in their shrill squeaky voices. Of course, they 
could not dance as their distorted feet measured two and a half 
inches in length and one and one-fourth inches in breadth, so that 
when they walked they looked as if they were on stilts and often 
had to be supported on either side by two other women. I discov- 
ered that a Chinaman is never seen in the company of his wife, 
and to ask how a man's wife is is considered a very indecent and 
improper question. Such is the low estimation in which woman is 
held in China. On suddenly looking at the clock I found that it 
was getting late, and took my leave quite enchanted with what I 
had seen." 

THE WAR OF 1840. 

In 1837 Captain Elliott, of the British navy, attempted to open 
communications with China. The point at issue, which aroused 
the antagonism of the Chinese, was the proposed legalizing of the 
opium trade. Hitherto that trade being illicit, had been carried on 
covertly, but a sufficient amount of the drug had been introduced 
to arouse the fears of the Chinese government as to the results. 
In the fall of 1837 Captain Elliott was notified b} r the viceroy of 
Canton thac the opium vessels must be driven away and not per- 
mitted to return. Had the British government obeyed the mandate 



356 THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

all would have been well, but England did not exert Herself to pro- 
tect the Chinese from the continuance of the pernicious trade. 

The same went on for two years with little restriction. In 
1839, the Imperial government, now thoroughly angered, sent to 
Canton a commissioner named Lin, who issued strenuous orders 
for the complete suppression of the opium business. He compelled 
the local authorities and merchants to surrender to him all the 
opium in the port. More than twenty thousand chests, valued at 
ten millions of dollars, were given up, thrown into a trench, 
and covered with a compost of lime and sea water. But, notwith- 
standing this wholesale destruction, the illicit traffic was continued. 

WAR IS DECLARED. 

The Chinese government became so irritated that the British 
residents of Canton were constrained to withdraw from the city. 
Even the Portuguese colony at Macao was no longer a safe place for 
an Englishman. On the 6th of December, 1839, an edict was pro- 
mulgated forbidding all trade of any kind with British ships and 
merchants. This led to a declaration of war, and in June, 1840, a 
British squadron appeared off Macao. 

The first actual hostility was at the mouth of the Yang-tze- 
kiang, where the island of Chusan was taken on the fourth of July. 
In August negotiations were opened between British and Chinese 
ambassadors, and the terms of a treaty were agreed upon ; but the 
Emperor refused to ratify the compact, and in the beginning of 
1 84 1 hostilities were resumed. Canton was brought under the 
guns of the British fleet, bombarded, and was obliged to ransom 
herself by the payment of six million dollars. An avenue of trade 
was thus opened into the heart of the Empire, and even during the 
continuance of the war British opium ships continued to eject their 
contents on the wharves of Canton. 

On the 27th of August, 1841, Amoy was captured by the 
English fleet, and on the 18th of the following October the city of 
Ningpo was taken. During the winter nothing of importance 
occurred. In May of 1842 Chapoo fell into the hands of the 
British, and in the next month Woosung and Shanghai were both 



THE DEADLY OPIUM. 357 

captured. The British forces then moved against Chinkiang and 
Nanking, the latter being the ancient capital of the country. 

TERMS OF THE TREATY. 

By this time the Imperial government was ready to sue for 
peace, even at the expense of the ruin of the national character by 
the incoming tides of opium. In the summer of 1842 a treaty was 
concluded. It was agreed that there should be a lasting peace 
between the two powers ; that China should pay a war indemnity 
of twenty-one million dollars ; that the ports of Canton, Amoy, 
Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai should be opened to foreign com- 
merce ; that Hong Kong should be ceded to Great Britain ; that all 
British prisoners should be released ; that the Chinese who had 
taken service under the British flag should not be punished ; that 
future intercourse between China and Great Britain should be on 
terms of equality ; that Chusan and Amoy should be occupied until 
the indemnity was paid. John Ridpath concludes : 

" Thus, by the right of the strongest and the law of the can- 
non was China compelled to expose her teeming millions to the 
ravages of the life-destroying drug of Turkey presented by the 
hands of Christian England. It was a work preparatory to the 
successful planting of Christian missions ! " 

Every one knows something about opium, but few people know 
exactly what it is. The Europeans when they are shown this 
brown and vicious paste, can scarcely believe that it is the magician 
from whom the Chinese demand dreams. It may be said though, 
that opium only provokes dreams under the fantastic pen of ro- 
mancers ; it calms the nerves and creates a pleasant torpor, that is 
all. Opium looks like a paste. To smoke a paste seems impossi- 
ble, but the smoker manipulates it in such a way with the compli- 
cated instruments of the fumerie that it shrivels and melts while 
producing more smoke than an equal weight of tobacco or hasheesh. 

This celebrated poison, the juice of the poppy, is sold for almost 
its weight in gold. It quickly enriches those who cultivate it, for 
it sells very soon in the markets, where the demand for it is always 
greater than the supply. If the poppy is not more cultivated it is 



358 THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

because there is needed for it a ground, a climate and an especial 
situation, which the countries suitable for its prosperity have diffi- 
culty in finding. Without that there is not a Chinese, a Hindu or 
a Persian who would not cultivate the remunerative poppy. 

The production of opium is principally carried on in the south- 
western provinces of Sechuen, Yunnan and Kweichew. It is grown 
to a less extent in Shen-si, Shan-si and Shantung in the north as 
well as in eastern Mongolia and northeastern Manchuria. But in 
these provinces the richest soil and utmost care is necessary to en- 
sure the success of the crop. Formerly the province of Shen-si 
produced thirty per cent, of the native product, but since the famine, 
caused by the the neglect of cereals for opium, the extension of the 
cultivation has been rigidly prohibited in Shen-si. Hunan and 
Pechili. 

In Kwangtung the soil and climate have been found unsuita- 
ble. The cultivation of the poppy is extending rapidly in spite of 
the prohibitory edicts issued from time to time ; four-fifths of the 
opium at present used in China is home grown. The plant likes 
the earth where it grows deeply to be mellow enough for its roots 
to ramify at their ease. This quality is not rare, and at need it 
could be given it artificially, but it has its reverse ; light earth 
offers but little consistency, and as soon as the wind and hard rains 
come the poppy is uprooted. 

CARE OF THE POPPY. 

The earth, then, must be firm as well as light, and the two 
qualities are not easy to find. Then the poppy needs plenty of 
moisture and does not like dryness ; the field where it is sown 
should abound in clay. Then, too, it is difficult to completely 
shelter it from the wind. The rare ground being discovered, it 
will not be enough to sow the seeds of Benares or of Batna in order 
to reap a plenteous harvest. The cultivator must carefully fertilize 
it and constantly wet it by intelligent irrigation. On the other 
hand he must pull up all the other plants about the field as their 
proximity is very unfavorable to the health of the poppy. 

The seed of the poppy is very small. To avoid putting too 



THE DEADLY OPIUM. 359 

much in one place it is mixed with sand and enclosed in a bottle 
which becomes a semoir in the following way : the bottle is closed 
with a cork which is pierced with a tube or quill passed through ; 
then the bottle is shaken and the mixture of sand and seed will 
pour out regularly on the ground. Great care must be taken not 
to sow the seeds too deeply as they need but a superficial covering 

WHEN THE POPPY HAS FLOWERED. 

The best way to sow it is in simple parallel lines, leaving 
space enough for the digging of the little canals necessary for irri- 
gation and for the continual hoeing of the plant during the period 
of growth. Then, when the poppy has flowered, toward the month 
of January, these spaces are useful to the workmen who gather the 
opium. At first the workmen make incisions in the capsule of the 
poppy. The next operation is to collect the juice ; the third one to 
dry it. 

As soon as the flower falls the incisions are made obliquely 
from the top to the base of the capsule with very sharp knives. 
These incisions are one millimeter deep, but should not go through 
the covering of the fruit ; this requires great care. Three or four 
of these incisions are made in the capsule at the hottest hour of the 
day and on the flowers upon which there is not the least trace of 
rain or dew. The operation is repeated until the whole surface is 
covered with incisions. At each lip thus made the tiny drops of a 
white liquid soon forms in pearls. 

The cultivator then begins gathering them at once, so that the 
drops of juice will not have time to thicken, for then they would 
not be of any use. Men and women — the women cost less and are 
more skillful — are put to work gathering with some sort of an 
instrument, usually an ordinary mussel shell, all these milky 
drops. At the end of the day the collection of each workman 
amounts to two hundred and fifty to three hundred grammes 
received and measured in a receptacle attached to the waist. The 
second operation is thus terminated. 

For the third, that is to say the drying, the juice is poured 
into large flat dishes and exposed to the sun. Little by little it 



360 THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

changes color, and when it is solid enough it is made into cakes of 
fifty grammes, which are again dried. Some cultivators place them 
in hot-houses. The cakes are rolled in the leaves or petals of 
poppy, then they are sent to the boilers, who subject them to a pro- 
longed cooking, so as to make that pasty and almost black sub- 
stance which is the delight of smokers. When the opium enters 
commerce it is sold for about a dollar or a dollar and a quarter a 
tael — or nearly the contents of a soupspoon. As soon as the sum- 
mer crop has been reaped the land is ploughed and cleaned, roots 
and weeds are burned and the ashes scattered over the ground, and 
thus the soil made ready for another planting. 

EFFECTS OF OPIUM-SMOKING. 

In 1858 it was estimated 2,000,000 Chinese smoked opium. 
It is now estimated that from one-fourth to three-fourths of the 
entire population of 400,000,000 are addicted to the use of this 
drug. The Chinese use for smoking an extract of opium, of which 
the privilege of preparing and the exclusive right to deal in is let 
to the highest bidder by the government for a fixed term of years. 
So far as can be gathered from conflicting statements published on 
the subject, opium smoking may be regarded much in the same 
light as the use of alcoholic stimulants. 

To the great majority of smokers who use it moderately, it 
appears to act as a stimulant, and to enable them to undergo great 
fatigue and to go for a considerable time with little or no food. 
According to reports of authorities on the subject when smokers 
have plenty of active work it appears to be no more injurious than 
tobacco smoking. When carried to excess it becomes an inveterate 
habit but this happens chiefly in individuals of weak will power. 
The effect in bad cases is to cause loss of appetite, a leaden pallor 
of the skin, and a degree of leanness so excessive as to make its 
victims appear like living skeletons. 

All inclination for exertion becomes gradually lost, business is 
neglected and certain ruin to the smoker follows. The use of the 
drug is opposed by all thinking Chinese not pecuniarily interested 
in the opium trade or cultivation, for several reasons, the most 



THE DEADLY OPIUM. 361 

important of which is the drain of bullion from the country, the 
decrease of population, the liability to famine through the cultiva- 
tion of opium where cereals should be grown, and the corruption 
of state officials. 

Mr. W. H. Brereton of Hong Kong, who has made a special 
study of the effects of opium-smoking, in his book " The Truth 
About Opium " (1882), considers that tobacco is more injurious 
than opium smoking. He describes the Chinese as, generally 
speaking, a strong, healthy, and intelligent people, and says that 
he has known among them young men, middle aged men, and men 
of advanced years who have been opium smokers all their lives, 
some of them probably excessive smokers. 

Yet he never observed any symptoms of premature decay in 
any of them. One old man, whom he knew for fifteen years, he 
describes as a keen man of business, strong in body and mind, who 
betrayed the practice only in the discoloration of his teeth. That 
few in any case smoke to excess seems probable from the generally 
white state of their teeth, of which they are very proud, and which 
they brush two or three times a day. Mr. Brereton, who speaks 
with kindness and respect of the English missionaries, considers 
that on the question of opium smoking " the zeal of their house 
hath eaten them up." 

EXTENT OF OPIUM TRAFFIC. 

In 1773 the opium trade of China was in the hands of the 
Portuguese, and the quantity annually exported to that country 
barely exceeded two hundred chests. That year the East India 
Company took the trade under their charge and in 1776 the annual 
export reached one thousand chests. In 1790 it had increased to 
4,054 chests, and from 1820 to 1830 it increased to 16,877 chests. 
From that time to the present day exportation of opium from India 
has been on the increase. 

In 1850 the annual exportation was 7,065,488 pounds, and in 
1880 12,927,941 pounds. At the present time the entire import 
from India does not exceed 13,350,000 pounds. The southwestern 
provinces of China, including Scchuen, produce not less than 29,- 



362 THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

904,000 pounds, and it is thought that eventually the native product 
will entirely replace that imported from India. In 1861 the amount 
of opium exported to Great Britain was 284,005 pounds. In 18 71 
it reached 591,466 pounds and in 1881, 793,146. Since that time 
the amount exported has been slowly increasing. 

In 1872 the United States imported 189,354 pounds of the 
crude and 49,375 pounds of the prepared opium. In 1880 the im- 
portation was 243,211 pounds of the crude and 77,196 pounds of 
the prepared drug. The larger portion of the prepared drug is 
used in San Francisco, where a large number of Chinese are found. 
A certain quantity of the crude opium seems to be re-exported to 
the West Indies. 

The habit of opium eating indulged in in India, Persia and 
Turkey is not confined to these countries alone, but is unfortunately 
practiced in other forms by the nations of Western countries. In a 
few districts of England more opium is consumed than in the rest of 
the United Kingdom, and in the United States it is calculated that 
the number of opium eaters is about 89,696, and that the average 
amount consumed by each opium eater in the state of Michigan is 
one ounce avoirdupois per week, while it is stated by Mr. Allen 
Williams that there are nearly a million persons in the United 
States who have acquired the habit of opium smoking. The habit 
seems to be on the increase in New York and other Eastern cities, 
as well as in the West. It will thus be seen how the opium 
habit has attained a world growth, and how it forms one of the im- 
portant items of commerce. 

GOVERNMENT MONOPOLIZES OPIUM INDUSTRY. 

The poppy grown in India is generally the same as that used 
in Persia, but in the Himalayas a red-flowered variety with black 
seeds is met with. The opium industry in Bengal is a government 
monopoly and the districts are divided into two agencies, Behar 
and Benares, which are under the control of officials residing at 
Patna and Ghazipur. In 1883, 463,829 acres were under poppy 
cultivation in the Behar agency, and 412,625 in that of Benares. 
Any one who chooses may undertake the industry, but cultivators 



THE DEADLY OPIUM. 363 

are obliged to sell the opium exclusively to the government agent 
at a price fixed beforehand by the latter. The peasant is said to 
be fully remunerated by the price he receives. It is considered 
that with greater freedom the cultivator would produce too great a 
quantity, and loss to the government would soon result. Advances 
of money are often made by the government to the peasant to grow 
the poppy. 

In Malwa the cultivation is free and extremely profitable, the 
crop realizing usually from three to seven times the value of 
wheat or other cereals, and in exceptionally advantageous situa- 
tions from twelve to twenty times as much. On its entering British 
territory a heavy duty is imposed on Malwa opium, so as to raise 
its price to an equality with the government article. Malwa opium 
is shipped from Bombay. The land intended for poppy cultivation 
is usually selected near villages in order that it may be more easily 
manured and irrigated. On a rich soil a crop of maize or vege- 
tables is grown during the rainy season, and after its removal in 
September the ground is prepared for poppy cultivation. 

OPIUM FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES. 

Under less favorable circumstances the land is prepared from 
July until October by plowing, weeding and manuring. The seed 
is sown between the first and fifteenth of November and germinates 
in ten or fifteen days. The fields are divided for purposes of irri- 
gation into beds about ten feet square, which are usually irrigated 
twice between November and February, but if the season is cold 
with little rain, the operation is repeated five or six times. The 
poppy blossoms about the middle of February and the petals, when 
about to fall, are collected for the purpose of making leaves for the 
spherical coverings of the balls of opium. 

The only Indian opium ever seen in England is an occasional 
sample of the Malwa sort, while the government monopoly opium 
is quite unknown. The opium used as medicine in Europe and 
the United States is obtained from Turkey. This is in some 
measure due to the fact that Indian opium contains less morphia. 
It has recently been shown, however, that opium grown in the hilly 

t 



364 THE DEADLY OPIUM. 

districts of trie Himalayas yields 50 per cent, more morphia than 
that of the plains, and that the deficiency of morphia in the Indian 
drug is due, in some measure, to the long exposure to the air 
which it undergoes in preparation. 

Persian opium was almost unknown in England until about 
the year 1870, except in the form of the inferior quality known as 
" Trebizoned," which usually contains from two-tenths to three 
per cent, of morphia. Now, Persian opium, as met with in the 
London market, occurs in several forms, the most common being 
that of broad rounded cones, weighing from six to ten ounces or 
more, or rarely twice that size. These are packed in poppy trash, 
or are wrapped separately in paper, or sometimes in poppy, fig or 
vine leaves. The greater proportion of the Persian opium imported 
into London is again exported, a comparatively small quantity 
bein^ used, chiefly for the manufacture of morphia when Turkey 
opium is dear, and a little in veterinary practice. Turkey opium 
is principally used for medicine on account of its purity and the 
large percentage of morphia that it contains. A comparatively 
small quantity is exported to China. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Advent of the Railroads. 

First Railroad Constructed — Feeling of the Chinese Towards Railroads— Concessions to 
Belgium and German Syndicates — Concessions to England — Where the Railroads 
Penetrate — Mileage at the Present Time — Chinese Opposition to Them — Demons 
and Devils. 

AS factors in creating the anti-foreign disturbances in China 
American railway locomotives will contest for first place 
with American missionaries. The missionaries, it is true, 
went first. The missionary zeal has always blazed the way for the 
locomotive and other instruments of civilization. The missionary 
did not take the locomotive with him, but it has always followed in 
his wake. The commercial spirit of the times acknowledges its 
debt to the missionaries grudgingly and reluctantly, but history 
records the obligation through proofs that are incontrovertible. 

To the Chinaman the locomotive has in it a greater variety of 
demons and devils than any other product of modern genius that 
finds its way into the Orient. In view of the present upris- 
ing against foreign influences in China it is interesting to note 
the present status of railway development in the Mongolian 
Empire. 

The first railway constructed in China was a line eleven miles 
long from Shanghai to Woosung, built in 1876, operated by an 
English company, but later destroyed by order of the Chinese 
government. 

The northern railways in China had their origin in the develop- 
ment of the coal mines of Kai-Ping, east of Pekin, and operated 
since 1885. Much of the Chinese prejudice against railroads was 
overcome by the English engineer who had charge of the actual 
working of the mines, but who placed their commercial direction 
in the hands of the Chinese. Through the influence of Li Hung 
Chang this road was extended by English engineers to Shan-Hai- 

Kouan and later toward New Chwang and Kiau-Chau. 

365 



366 ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

ENGLAND AND RUSSIA CLASH. 

Realizing the importance of this road to their commercial in- 
terests, the English obtained a concession to bnild to Hankow, and 
after engaging to raise $11,000,000 to build it to New Chwang the 
Russians interfered and succeeded in persuading the Chinese gov- 
ernment to repudiate its agreement. Finally Russia and England 
came to an agreement to divide their spheres of influence in regard 
to railway construction. 

After the war of 1895, work on this line was resumed, but was 
stopped within 1.8 miles of the south gate of Pekin. Since July, 
1899, this gate has been connected with the railway by an electric 
tramway built by a Berlin firm, which has excited greater curiosity 
among the Chinese than the steam locomotives and is supposed to 
be invested with a greater number of evil spirits. 

The Shanghai- Woosung Railway was rebuilt by German en- 
gineers in 1898, and will be eventually extended by an English 
firm to Suchu, Chinkiang and Nankin. The most important roads 
under construction are the Pekin-Hankow Road, the Manchurian 
Railroad, building by Russia to connect with the Trans-Siberian, 
and the Shansi Road, a branch of the Hankow-Pekin system. In 
addition to these, important concessions have been granted to 
American, German and English syndicates. The " Boxer" upris- 
ing has brought all enterprises of this character to a standstill and 
necessarily jeopardizes the foreign capital already invested in rail- 
way development. 

GENERAL RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION. 

The railways in operation in China are as follows : 

Miles. 

Imperial Chinese — From Pekin east and northeasterly via 
Tien-Tsin and Tongku, on the Gulf of Pechili, to 

Chenchou 367 

Branches 40 

Belgian Line — From near Pekin southwest to Paoting . . j8 

Branch 10 

Total length of track 495 



ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 307 

The principal lines for which concessions have been obtained 
or were being sought before the Boxer uprising may be roughly 
indicated as follows, the proposed mileage being estimated in 
round numbers: 

Miles. 

Chinese Eastern Railway — From Port Arthur to the Rus- 
sian boundary, for a connection with the Trans- 
Siberian Railway (Chinese-Russian) 1,000 

Branch to Vladivostok 400 

Extension from Chenchou north 100 

Pekin-Hankow Line (Belgian) 700 

Hankow-Canton Line (American) 700 

Tien-Tsin-Shanghai Line (German) 700 

Shanghai-Hongkong-Canton project (British) 900 

Shanghai to Nanking, etc. (British) 200 

Chengtoo, capital of the province of Sechuen, to Canton Line 800 
Canton west to the Burmah boundary (to connect with 

British-Indian system via Mandalay and Calcutta) . 1,000 
East and west lines in western coal and iron regions (Brit- 
ish, American and Italian) 500 

South China- -Several projects (French) 500 

Total 7,5°o 

Various branches from the great trunk lines and numerous 
short roads connecting large cities have also been suggested, and 
are to be counted certain when the railway building era comes. 
The reasonable possibilities of railway development in China in 
the next decade or two are only to be estimated by tens of thou- 
sands of miles. 

CONCESSIONS GRANTED. 

The first concession granted and accepted, except the old Wu- 
chang line which was purchased and destroyed by the Chinese gov- 
ernment, was for a railway from Pekin, or rather Feng-thai, which 
is five miles from Pekin on the Tien-Tsin-Pekiu line, to Hankow. 
This was granted to a Belgian syndicate, though the general belief 
in China is that it was supported by Russian influence in order to 



368 ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

get a railway into the heart of the Yang-tze-kiang valley. The 
Chinese government itself constrncted the upper portion of this 
line, but afterwards turned it over to the Belgian company, to be 
operated as a part of the line proposed in its concession. 

The next concession was for a continuation of the Pekin-Han 
kow line, extending it from Hankow to Canton. This was given 
to an American syndicate. The two lines will be of about the same 
length, 700 miles, and together they will make a continuous line of 
about 1,400 miles. This will connect North and South China, and 
divide the country into two approximately equal parts, east and 
west. 

Of other concessions granted, there is one for a line from 
Shanghai, by way of Su-chau to Chingkiang and so on to Nanking, 
with an extension crossing the river to Sinyang, and with a branch 
extending from Su-chau, by way of Heng-chau to Ningpo. This is 
an English concession, and it has a double value in that it controls 
the approaches to Shanghai and forms the first step in a line from 
Shanghai to Hankow. 

RAILROAD SYNDICATE. 

A fourth concession is to an Anglo-German syndicate for a 
line from Tien-Tsin, through Shantung, along the line of the Grand 
Canal to the Yang-tze-kiang river, opposite Chingkiang, where con- 
nection will be made, probably by ferry, with the English line to 
Shanghai. The only other concession made is for a system of lines 
connecting the coal fields in Shan-si and Shen-si, granted to an 
Anglo-Italian association, usually spoken of as the " Pekin Syndi- 
cate." For all of the above lines surveys are either in progress or 
have been made. 

The line between Pekin and Tien-Tsin a distance of eighty 
miles is double-tracked, and has its terminus at Machiapu, a few 
miles from Pekin. They are running on an average of three trains 
each way per day, two being ordinary and one express. Foreigners 
prefer the express train which completes the journey in three hours 
and forty minutes. When the line was first opened, the first-class 
cars were cushioned and made as comfortable as circumstances 



370 ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

would permit, but in a very short time this had to be altered, as the 
habits peculiar to the Chinese soon rendered these carriages unfit 
for use by cleanly people, even though they were not too fastidious. 
The first-class trains are now provided with wooden seats, made 
as comfortable as the nature of that material will permit. The 
express trains run a postal car under the control of the Imperial 
Chinese post-office, and as these are considered the private property 
of Sir Robert Hart, a part of the car has been upholstered and is 
reserved for such foreign travelers as choose to make use of it. To 
travel by these reserved cars it is not necessary to take the ordinary 
ticket, but each traveler when seated in the car is provided by the 
foreign postal clerk with a special pass, for which he has to pay 
the sum of $5. 

COUNTRY PENETRATED. 

On the other side of Tien-Tsin is a single-track line running 
almost due east for 27 miles to Tangku, which is now virtually the 
shipping port for Tien-Tsin, and is likely to be permanently the 
port for that emporium. From Tangku the line takes a northeast- 
erly direction to Shanhaikuan and beyond. The country about 
Tangku is dreary, being a mere mud flat, devoted only to the pro- 
duction of salt from brine pans ; but a few miles beyond scanty 
crops begin to appear and the country improves as each mile is 
passed. 

At Lutai, 51 miles from Tien-Tsin, are several large camps of 
native soldiers, and beyond this the country improves in appear- 
ance, owing to its being better wooded. At T'angshan, 80 miles 
from Tien-Tsin, the Kaiping coal fields are reached, and thence to 
Kuyeh, 14 miles further on, some 10 colleries are at work, but the 
vast coal fields that exist in this district have as yet only been 
partially exploited. 

At T'angshan the monotony of the plain is broken by low 
hills and thence onward the country is better wooded and is highly 
cultivated. At Lanchou, 113 miles from Tien-Tsin, the line crosses 
the Lan Ho, and as this river is subject to heavy and dangerous 
floods during the rainy season, the bridging of it was a difficult 



ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 371 

task. In the dry season the bridge passes over a vast stretch of 
sand, while the river gives no trouble. During the floods it rises 
to the top of the stone piers that support the bridge. Soon after 
passing Lanchou the railway approaches the seacoast and a station 
has been opened on the line, 152 miles from Tien-Tsin, for Peitaiho, 
the well-known seaside resort of the north, which brings the traveler 
within four miles of that place. 

Twenty-one miles beyond this Shanhaikuan is reached, 174 
miles from Tien-Tsin. The line is now fully completed to Chen- 
chou, an important city that frequently appears on foreign maps 
as Kinchou, and is often confounded with the city of that name on 
the Liaotung peninsula. This makes in all 367 miles open for 
traffic from the capital, or 287 miles from Tien-Tsin. 

IMMENSE RAILROAD SHOPS. 

In addition to the main lines under Chinese management there 
are two short branches in workiug order, namely, one of 10 miles 
from Kaochiao, a place about 15 miles west of Clienchou, to Tien- 
chiaochang, a town 011 the coast, and another from Nuerrho, close 
to Cheuchou, some 30 miles in length, leading to the collieries at 
Nanpiao. This makes a grand total of mileage open to traffic 
under the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration of Nortli 
China, of 407 miles. The work of laying lines from Tangku to 
the various wharves on the river, in order to facilitate shipping 
interests, is in progress, and when completed will be an important 
undertaking. 

There are complete workshops and stores at various places on 
the line where the necessary repairs are carried out. The principal 
establishment is at T'angshan, but as the main line passes to the 
south of the T'angshan colliery, and the railway works are situated 
to the north of it, being reached by a siding, the ordinary traveler 
by the train does not know of their existence. These works are 
very extensive and at one time were fully equal to the requirements 
of the line, but now such ample demands are made upon them that 
there is no proper accommodation for the jobs that have to be under- 
taken, and the result is that many locomotives have to be stationed 



372 ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

in the open air while the necessary repairs are being done. All 
carriages used on the line are made at T'angshan, and this, of 
course, takes up a great deal cf room. 

It has been found that finely made and complicated drills and 
lathes imported from Europe require skilled labor and occasion 
delay besides expense, hence simple tools have been cast at the 
works, and scores of these are worked effectively by men who have 
learned about the yard how to do simple jobs, yet are by no means 
skilled mechanics, nor paid as much. While such tools are used 
in great numbers and much good work is done by them, first-class 
English tools may be seen in the shop lying idle. 

FIRST LOCOMOTIVE BUILT IN CHINA. 

But it is not only simple jobs that are undertaken at T'ang- 
shan, for on the 4th of October, 1899, there took place the trial- 
trip of the first full-sized locomotive that has ever been built in 
China. The cylinders of this engine could be stripped for repairs 
in half an hour, whereas it would be a full day's work to strip the 
cylinders of an English engine. The trial was completely suc- 
cessful, and so much interest was taken by the laborers in this un- 
dertaking that there was quite a commotion in the yard when the 
engine steamed out toward the main line. 

Good as the first engine is, subsequent ones will doubtless 
contain further improvements which experience may dictate. How 
important the construction of such locomotives becomes is evi- 
denced by the fact that the cost is from $1,984 to $2,430 less than 
that of imported locomotives. The wheels and materials used are 
imported from foreign countries. Locomotives of this description, 
it has been reckoned, can be turned out at the rate of one a month 
to start withj but more rapidly as further progress in their con- 
struction is made and requirements are more fully ascertained. 

In another part of the T'angshan yard, the " Rocket of China" 
is laid up in retirement. This is the small locomotive built by 
Mr. C. W. Kinder many years ago, before railways in China were 
dreamed of, and was used for drawing trucks of coal from the 
T'angshan colliery to the canal basin some five and a half miles 



ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 373 

away, by which the coal was then shipped to the coast. It is par- 
tially due to the success of this small engine that permission was 
given by the authorities to open railways in China. 

As stated above the present workshops of T'angshan are not 
equal to the demands upon them, so a large piece of land has been 
acquired a mile up the line, toward Tien-Tsin. This has been laid 
out for the storeroom and the shops that are required. The old 
works at T'angshan are to be given up to carriage factories and 
stores. There is to be built in the new yard the following : 

DIMENSIONS. AREA. 

Erecting shop, .... 300 x 105 feet 3 T 5 500 square feet 

Smith's shop, .... 300 x 55 " J 6,500 " 

Machine shop, .... 240 x 65 " 15,600 " 

Boiler Shop. 304 x 65 " 13,260 " 

The employees of this road, foreign and native, number 5,650. 
The average wages paid employees per month is $14.50 Foreign 
engineers are paid 190 taels, or $131.86 per month. During the 
year 1898 the company carried 2,850,000 passengers, and for the 
half year ending June 30, 1899, 1,500,000 passengers. The com- 
pany owns 1,410 passenger and freight cars and 74 engines, nearly 
one-half the latter coming from the United States. It is under- 
stood that the road is paying handsome profits. 

NO CONSOLIDATION OF NATIVE CAPITAL. 

While there is a large amount of private wealth in China, 
native capitalists have not been instructed in the idea of combi- 
ning in large joint-stock companies. But as the need of railways 
grows more pressing, the government becomes more adventurous, 
hence the concessions granted foreign syndicates. But these con- 
cessions clearly state that the title to the property remains in the 
government (according to Chinese theory the Emperor is the 
owner of all things) and that the money required for construction 
is to be advanced by the foreigner as a loan. 

In order that the latter may recoup himself for this loan, he 
receives bonds guaranteed, both as to principal and interest, by the 
government, bearing five per cent, interest, payable in the cur- 



374 ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

rent gold of the foreigner's country. These bonds are issued at 
such a reasonable discount as to pay the expense of making the 
issue to the investing public, and in only such quantities as are 
necessary to pay the legitimate cost of construction, so that the 
purchasers of the bonds receive a security based on positive value 
and without the usual " watering." The time of the loan varies 
with each concession, but is usually between forty and fifty years. 
The control of the property, so far as financial matters are 
concerned, is vested absolutely in the foreigner's hands, and, so far 
as local matters are concerned, in a board in which the foreign ele- 
ment and influence predominate. To pay the foreigner for his 
labor he is entitled to receive a certain proportion, usually twenty 
per cent., of the net earnings, if any, after paying operating ex- 
penses and interest. The bonds are redeemable at a price fixed 
in the concession, so in the event of the credit of the Chinese gov- 
ernment improving, the first issue may be refunded at a lower rate. 
At the end of the fixed period the foreigner's interest ceases en- 
tirely, and the Chinese take over the management. 

SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION. 

Other provisions require the foreigner to maintain a school of 
instruction ; to consider the Chinese on an equal footing with for- 
eigners for appointment ; to permit natives to invest in the securi- 
ties ; to transport government troops and munitions of war at half 
rates; and in the event of war between China and another power, 
not to give aid to the enemy On the other hand the full power 
of the government is pledged, in addition to its financial guarantee, 
to protect the foreigner in the full and unrestricted right, according 
to the terms of the concession, to use and enjoy the fruits of his 
labors. 

That the railway is to become permanent in China there is 
little question. The energy of the government in pushing the 
construction of its own system alone proves that the day of tearing 
up rails is past. It is the opinion of all who have investigated the 
subject that the time is at hand when the actual system that is to 
cover the Empire with its lace-work of steel can, not only be pro- 



ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 375 

jected on paper, but be materially begun in its practical con- 
struction. 

Things move slowly in China, and although the northern rail- 
way proved its commercial success, it was not until the war with 
Japan had shown the helplessness of the country, by reason of the 
lack of rapid and certain means of communication, that measures 
were taken looking to decisive action. The country was divided 
into two sections called North and South; over each of these was 
installed an official with the title of Director-General of Railways ; 
and railways were talked of and projected for the length and 
breadth of the land. 

FOUR CENTERS OF DISTRIBUTION. 

In China there are four centers of distribution. One is 
Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yang-tze-kiang ; it is sometimes 
called the New York of China. Another is Hankow, situated on 
the same river 700 statute miles from its mouth, at the point of 
junction with the river Han-kiang; it is the great market for the 
interior, and is known as the Chicago of the Empire. In the 
South is Canton, at the head of the river of the same name, or 
" Pearl River." Canton was China's first open port, and is now 
the center of the general manufacturing industry. In the North 
is Tien-Tsin, which, with Pekin only eighty miles distant, is fre- 
quently alluded to as the u metropolitan district." 

In the past China has been able to carry on her commerce as 
these four cities all had water connections. But modern conditions 
require a more certain and speedy means of communication. This 
is especially true at Tien-Tsin, where the port is closed by ice for 
nearly one-third of the year. The lines of first importance in 
China's railway system will be those connecting these four points, 
all about equally distant from each other, 700 miles. 

The advent of the railway has been opposed by Mandarins and 
the governors of provinces. The Mandarins objected on behalf of 
the millions of porters and boatmen engaged in the transport traf- 
fic ; they also appealed to the feng-shui, as they did when they op- 
posed the erection of lofty buildings on the European concessions. 



376 ADVENT OF THE RAILROADS. 

The true reason of the opposition was the fear that a developed 
railway system might increase foreign influences. The governors 
of provinces had another motive for opposing the railway projects. 

Without railways the difficulty of communicating with the 
capital made them almost independent of the central authority in 
their local administration, while more rapid means of locomotion 
has the effect of bringing them more under control, and checking 
their systematic misgovernment of the provinces. 

In this connection William Barclay Parsons, Chief Engineer 
of the American China Development Company, says : 

OFFICIAL CLASS OPPOSE. 

" Whatever opposition there has been to railway construction 
in China has come largely, I believe, from the official class, who, 
fearing that the new order of things might reduce their preroga- 
tives or powers, have been apathetic or have worked on the ignorant 
superstitions of the people to bring them into open antagonism. 
Now, however, they either recognize the errors of the past or 
realize that the time for change has come, and are not in open op- 
position. The people themselves will not obstruct. The employ- 
ment of laborers and the distribution of benefits will immediately 
dispel, as has been found in the North, any lingering spirit of hos- 
tility. 

" The Chinaman does not travel at present because the lack of 
facilities in the interior prevents him ; but give him the opportu- 
tunity, and there is no one will excel him. The reports to the 
Canton customs show that the steamers between Hong Kong and 
Canton carry nearly 1,000,000 passengers annually, and there is, 
in addition, a large travel by junk. The railways of India and 
Japan clearly show that the Oriental will patronize liberally the 
better mode of conveyance. What has been shown in these coun- 
tries will be shown also in China." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Mandarin and His Power. 

Official Position of the Mandarin— His Relations to the People — His Connection with 
the Throne — How His Power Grew — His Influence in Insurrections — Number of 
Mandarins — Their Moral Character — The Mandarin's Family — How he Collects 
Taxes — Sir Robert Hart. 

THE Mandarins, an influential element of official life in China, 
are divided into nine grades or orders, each distinguished by 
certain insignia upon the breast or cap or clasp of the girdle. 
They possess great power, especially in the provinces under their 
control. They have a collective designation of Pe-kwan, which 
means " hundred functions, " or in plain English the department 
of all military and civil officials. The generic name of these offi- 
cials is Kwang-fu, which, translated into English, means " Man- 
darin." This title was originally the Portuguese pronunciation of 
the Hindu title of the native magistrates in Goa. The official 
button or knob which they wear, which is about the size of a 
pigeon's egg, shows by its color and material what rank they hold. 
They cannot transmit their titles to their children, and even 
when raised to high honors by the Emperor this honor does not 
affect their children but only their ancestry. The civil Mandarin 
who is ordered to take charge of a certain province, occupying the 
position of a governor, is forbidden to take his father with him. 
The reason for this is that if he and his father disagreed the son 
might be placed between two inexorable duties — obedience to the 
government and filial piety. According to the Chinese reasoning 
neither can take precedence of the other. All hereditary titles in 
the Empire are reserved for the descendants of Confucius and the 
Emperor. The members of the imperial family have a few special 
privileges, such as a small pension, the right to wear a red or yel- 
low girdle, a peacock's feather in their cap and to be carried by 
eight or twelve palanquin bearers. These members of the impe- 
rial family count for little in the administration of governmental 

377 



378 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 



affairs. They are watched over by especially appointed Mandarins 
and the rod may be applied to them by these officials. 

FATHER AND MOTHER. 

The Mandarin having once been assigned to the charge of a 
province, becomes, in a sense, the " father and mother" of the peo- 
ple over whom 
he has juris- 
diction. Long 
ago, before the 
people knew 
them as well 
as they do now, 
they were 
given the title 
of " clouds." 
This was ap- 
plied to them 
because they 
were supposed 
to "shed the 
healing show- 
ers on the 
thirsty soil." 
When at the 
head of a pro- 
vince all func- 
tions are cen- 
tered in their 
hands. Taxes 
are levied by 
them, they are 
supposed to 
build the roads , 




A MANDARIN RECEIVING A VISITOR. 



the organization of the militia is left to them and they may be 
quite despotic in the exercise of their power. Still, it is always 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 379 

within the province of the Emperor to remove them on the slightest 
provocation, and fear of this removal sometimes prevents tyranny 
on their part. 

A Mandarin may be held responsible for all the crimes, mur- 
ders and outbreaks that may take place in his jurisdiction. This 
has led him, in making his annual reports to the Emperor, to leave 
out all reference to disorders. Once upon a time, for giving the 
Emperor offense, a Mandarin could be beheaded. But at the 
present time, if he is in disfavor, he is usually banished to Man- 
churia, Formosa, or some other distant region. One event that 
has shorn them of much of their power has been the refusal of the 
foreign powers to treat directly with them or the viceroys, and 
when necessary to have communication with the government hav- 
ing communication only with the Emperor's court at Pekin. 

INCREASE THEIR INCOMES BY EXTORTION. 

The Mandarin has never been well paid by the government. 
The result of this has been that he has too often sought to increase 
his income by extortion, bribery and illegal fees. The effect of this 
extortion, is to demoralize the people that are "ruled, in many ways. 
These people are aware that the Mandarin cannot live on his 
salary, and therefore make excuse for the irregular fees. The 
people also become educated in bribe-giving, and corruption and 
injustice thrives when such a thing is tolerated by the public mind. 
The distinction made by the Chinese themselves between a good 
and a bad Mandarin is that the good Mandarin makes them pay 
for justice, while the bad Mandarin sells justice to he who bids the 
highest. 

Naturally, being governors of the separate provinces, the Man- 
darins acquire a control over the people their districts which in the 
time of uprisings may be powerfully used for evil or for good. Tal- 
cott Williams calls attention to the local conditions which exist 
in China and which make it possible for the Mandarins to acquire 
the power they do. He writes : 

" There is stretched out over China a great dumb, inert mass, 
for the most part a village population. The highly organized 



380 THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. . 

European state has fifty per cent, of its population in the cities. 

The less highly organized American Union has from twenty-five 

to thirty per cent, of its population distributed in urban centers. 

A century ago only four per cent, were gathered in the small cities 

and settlements that constitute such urban population as America 

had. 

CHINA IGNORANT OF NUMBERS. 

" With each decade the proportion has grown and in its growth 
has marked a higher and more complex condition of society. In 
China no one knows to-day, within a hundred millions, what its 
population is, or within a wide and varying fraction, what share 
of it is gathered in cities. In India not ten per cent, is associated 
thus in urban life. In China it is altogether probable not five 
per cent, is thus gathered. 

" As every Oriental resident is aware the tendency is to exag- 
gerate the population of a city and to underestimate the population 
of the village communities. There are great tracts in China, such 
as Dr. A. H. Smith describes in Shantung, and such as other ob- 
servers have noted in South and Central China, where, for an area 
as large as the Middle States, the population runs, league by 
league, at the rate of 1,000 per square mile. Yet through all this 
vast section there will be for miles nothing but a succession of 
villages. 

" These villages, small creatures of accident, prey of interne- 
cine feuds, perpetual fighting for wells, for cattle, and self-protec- 
tion from robber bands, themselves tyrannized by headmen and 
bully, yet preserving a rude self-government ; their horizon bounded 
by their own fields, their trade the passing commerce of the peddler, 
their schooling the strolling teacher, their knowledge of the Empire 
mere rumor, their contact with it limited to tax-gatherers and 
magistrates, stretch with unvarying monotony over all the vast 
extent of China. 

" They constitute the vast back ground, that appalling reser- 
voir of humanity, which perpetually moves the imagination of men 
with thought of the yellow terror. Taken individually and collec- 
tively, they are, perhaps, the most docile, least harmful, the most 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 381 

patient, and so far as the full results of their industry go, the most 
wastefully industrious human beings on the planet." 

Over these people the Mandarin, who in position or title is not 
separated from the so-called Viceroy, rules with a sway of iron. 

INDEPENDENT OF PEKIN. 

Much has been said recently about the Mandarins, whose 
authority seems to be so great that they are to a great extent inde- 
pendent of Pekin. They are, in fact, petty kings, but their powers 
are held altogether at the mercy of the imperial authority. Noth- 
ing of real independent power is theirs, inasmuch as they are under 
watch at all times from the capital and at any time they may be 
visited unexpectedly by royal commissioners sent to investigate 
their doings. 

A word from the Emperor will deprive them of rank, property 
and even life. Furthermore, the Mandarin who is the governor of 
a province, is responsible for all calamities of kinds that are at- 
tributed to u acts of God " in other countries. If a river overflows 
it is his fault ; if there is a scarcity of crops in a dry season, he is 
blamed ; if part of a town is wiped out by fire, something must be 
wrong with his administration. Punishment in such cases usually 
takes the form of degradation in rank. 

A semi-monthly issue of the Pekin-Gazette is devoted to orders 
promulgated by the Mandarins. One of these issues of January 
4, 1897, cites ten cases of higher military and civic officials who 
were guilty of glaring neglects of duty. The civil governor of 
Kirin placards in this issue not less than five higher officials. One 
of them, a general stationed near the frontier, is accused of having 
committed brutalities against peaceable inhabitants and of having 
embezzled the pay for a number of soldiers who figured only on 
paper and never existed in reality. 

A civil commissioner who was detailed to investigate this case 
never appeared upon the scene. A colonel of the same district is 
accused not only of having neglected to send soldiers in pursuit of 
robbers who pillaged a village, but to have tolerated the sacking of 
houses by his soldiers. A third military official is charged with 



382 THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 

having appropriated repeatedly a number of guns and sold them, 
so that his men had neither sufficient arms for drill nor for the 
suppression of gangs of robbers infesting the district. The same 
official also carried a number of men on paper and appropriated 
their pay. 

For the conduct of these three military Mandarins the Emperor 
had no stronger condemnation than that it was " undignified," and 
their punishment was the striking of their names from the rolls. 
The same issue charges a general and a major with cowardice. 
They were ordered to attack a mountain stronghold of the robbers. 
First they delayed the march in an altogether indefensible manner, 
and finally they did not dare to proceed to the attack. These two 
officers were also dishonorably discharged "as a warning to others." 

NEW TRIBUNAL CREATED. 

It is only natural, considering the Chinese contention, officially 
stated by Prince Kung in i860, that " there is but one Emperor 
who rules over all lands," that any administrative provision for 
dealing with foreign countries as equals is of subsequent origin. 
China, indeed, has a colonial office — the lifanyuen — not, however, 
one of the six boards ; and England, France, Germany and other 
powers had long been inscribed on its books as mere vassals and 
dependencies. 

But the capture of Pekin changed such humiliating procedures; 
to meet the necessities of foreign intercourse under new conditions 
a new tribunal was called into existence and upon it was bestowed, 
at Prince Kung's suggestion, the name of tsung-li-yamen. It was 
regarded by the mandarinate as an evolution from the lifanyuen, the 
second syllable in the title of the new foreign office, signifies con- 
trol, and serving thus to connect it with the old department in a 
fashion soothing to Chinese pride. 

It began with no high pretensions, either as to numbers or 
prestige, although Prince Kung himself, the brother of the 
Emperor, became its first president. Under him in 1861 were only 
three ministers. Under Prince Kung the example of the more or 
less enlightened ministry of the new tsung-li-yamen quickly spread 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 383 

to other departments of the government, and soon modified the 
supercilious zeal of the mandarinate. The new foreign office began 
to show a speedy growth, until it now counts regularly nine or ten 
ministers and as many under-secretaries or heads of departments. 
Under each of these chiefs of departments are numerous assistants, 
not to mention scores of clerks and copyists who are not in the line 
of promotion. 

It would not be a rash assertion to say that the tsung-li-yamen 
holds within its walls the most enlightened, the most progressive 
class, Mandarins and clerks, to be found, not merely in Pekin, but 
throughout the whole middle kingdom. In the first place, the 
mere fact of being a candidate for entry into this branch of the 
Chinese public service is sufficient to prove the possession of qual- 
ities the very reverse of timidity and narrow-mindedness. 

THE DANGERS OF PROMOTION. 

" It is dangerous to have anything to do with foreign affairs," 
is an expression one often hears on the lips of a young scholar of 
the second or third degree who seeks to enter government service 
as an apprentice. Perhaps because of this belief in its danger or 
disagreeableness, promotion comes more quickly in this department 
than in the army, the navy, the customs, or any of the six boards. 

In ten or twelve years the scholar finds himself drafted off as 
prefect or taotai of some distant province. Or he may be dis- 
patched to one of the various legations as secretary, there to be 
promoted to a chargeship or ministership, as his merits or influence 
entitle him. Such was the career of Lo-feng Luh, who has lately 
blossomed forth as Sir Chih-chen Lofengluh, he going through the 
prescribed course at the tsung-li-yamen before attracting the atten- 
tion of the great Li-Hung Chang, who on his tour through 
Europe ; attached him to his person as secretary. 

It has been surmised, and not without reason, that the estab- 
lishment of the tsung-li-yamen was due to a desire on the part of 
Prince Kung and his associates to impede in formal fashion, rather 
than to expedite foreign business. Foreign powers in the early 
years of the yamen were inclined to be a little dictatorial, and it 



384 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER 



was a common saying among the Mandarins : " Well, what have 
France and England ordered China to do next ? " 



ALWAYS GO SLOWLY, 



The motto of the yamen has been " Go slowly." The mem- 
bers have been made to feel that they stood between Europe and 



' 1* ^ 




U-HUNG CHANG, VICEROY OF CHINA. 

China. At first their ignorance was so excessive that it rendered 
them cautious in executing even the slightest formalities, fearful 
that the foreigners would overreach them. Perhaps not least of the 
singularities of Chinese government is the way the tsung-li-yamen 
recruits its membership, as explained by Cheng Lin, one of the 
Mandarins. As an expedient for " averting external opposition by 
substituting internal friction " it deserves celebrity. 

" You know," once said this member of the yamen, " that the 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 385 

plans of the department sometimes go down before the force of out- 
side antagonism. A clever censor or powerful Mandarin gets the 
ear of the Emperor, who forthwith quashes our wisest schemes. 
In such a case Prince Kung has a way of his own to deal with the 
difficulty. He memorializes the throne to give his opponent a 
chair in this council for foreign affairs. The prince knows that, 
once here, he will not be slow to find out that his highness' policy 
is the only possible way of getting along with foreign nations. 
For that reason and no other, were Mao and Shen brought into this 
yamen." 

Of the two men named, the first rose from a vice-presidency in 
the censorate to be president of the board of civil office ; the other 
from the governorship of Shansi to be grand secretary, with the 
title of Chungtang. After their entrance into the tsung-li-yainen 
it was necessary to impart to them a little elementary instruction 
in foreign relations, beginning with geography. 

LIMITED KNOWLEDGE OF GEOGRAPHY. 

Geography is not the strong point of the members of the 
tsung-li-yamen — it was their weakest point until very recently. 
On account of his knowledge in this direction the ex-governor of 
Fokien, Seu Kiyu, was created a minister of the yamen. It 
appeared that he had compiled a text-book, in which the statement 
is made that " Rhode Island is remarkable for having a brazen 
Colossus bestriding its harbor.' 7 Another desired to know, before 
inditing a dispatch, if " Piluchi (Baluchistan) was not the same as 
Pilu (Peru)?" 

It was with the tsung-li-yamen that Sir Claude Mac Don aid 
and the other foreign ministers were brought almost daily into 
relation at Pekin. The ministers comprising it are not, however, 
restricted in their official duties to serving it alone ; for the yamen 
comprises most of the heads of the six boards and always two mem- 
bers of the imperial cabinet. Altogether the tsung-li-yamen is now 
regarded as the most powerful tribunal in the Empire ; and when 
the truth in its entirety comes to be known it will probably be seen 
that the weight of its influence was not small in restraining the 
25 



386 THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 

leaders of trie fanatical anti-foreign party from proceeding to even 
greater lengths than they have done in their hatred and distrust of 
the fan qui. 

The Mandarins who are thus able to make and unmake great 
departments of the Empire should have for the trust reposed in 
them the highest moral characters. It is true that a few with whom 
Western people have come in contact have shown themselves to be 
possessed of great virtues, willing to sacrifice their lives rather than 
be false to justice. But these are exceptions. The great majority 
as known to those with whom they have come in contact have been 
cruel, avaricious, brutal. The people have submitted uncomplain- 
ingly to their abuses and probably will continue to do so until a 
reorganization of the administrative departments of the government 
leads to the abolishment of the Mandarin. 

COLLECTING DELINQUENT TAXES. 

It is frequently impossible for large bodies of the people in the 
district of a Mandarin to meet the annual taxes imposed upon 
them. Failures of crops, disease, a hundred and one calamities, 
deprive them of revenue. The Mandarin does not recognize these 
conditions as legitimate exemptions from taxation. The delin- 
quent taxpayers are required to bond the labor of their children to 
him. They sell their own services for years ahead. They are taken 
into a slavery for the payment of the taxes far worse than that 
endured by the negro of America prior to the Civil War. 

The Mandarin's own family, especially that of a Mandarin of 
the interior provinces, is a curious mixture. Aside from the wives 
legitimately allowed him by law or custom he will have a vast 
retinue of women servants, collected from all parts of the Empire, 
and many of whom hold a closer position in his affections than do 
the wives. It is not infrequent that one of these servants will gain 
such control over the Mandarin that she will become virtual ruler 
of the province. If she is more than ordinarily intelligent her sway 
will be for the good, but if she comes from the very lowest classes 
her elevation to power turns her head, and her control becomes a 
frightful tyranny. 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 387 

The children of a Mandarin, whatever their origin, receive no 
special benefits from the Imperial government because of their 
parentage. So long as their father has a connection with the gov- 
ernment they are well cared for and educated. But unless, on their 
coming of age, he specially provides for them, they must care for 
themselves, and exert their own influence to in time become Man- 
darins themselves. The eldest son cannot succeed to the honors of 
his father. There is no such thing as inheriting his father's title 
and taxing power. Should the Mandarin die while in office the 
wives nearest to him make off with such of his wealth as they can 
lay hands on, the others shift for themselves, often falling heir to 
many woes. 

The number of Mandarins in the Empire varies from time to 
time. Twenty is the average number, but this is sometimes in- 
creased to fifty or a hundred. The Mandarins as a rule have con- 
sistently opposed the advent of the foreign powers in China. 

CLASH WITH EUROPE. 

A cycle of Cathay has elapsed since the doors of China were 
violently forced open by a " Christian " nation to admit the traffic 
in opium, the importation of which, up to that time, had, by Chinese 
law, been a capital offence. For the opium war, which was forced 
upon her, a heavy indemnity was exacted from China and the ces- 
sion of Hong Kong to Great Britain. The feeling of resentment 
aroused by these aggiessions was shown in several minor insurrec- 
tions led by the Mandarins, but culminated in the Great Tai-ping 
Rebellion in 1850, which all but shook the dynasty from its throne, 
and only failed because its forces, corrupted by riotous living, gave 
up their high purpose of founding a new dynasty and degenerated 
into a horde of robbers. 

The affair of the Arrow, in 1856, in which a Chinese Manda- 
rin arrested some pirates from a boat that had formerly had a license 
to fly the British flag, but whose license had expired, was made the 
excuse for the French and English war of 1859-1860. This war, 
marked by the desecration of temples and graves and the wanton 
destruction by the allies of the ancient and sacred places, was closed 



388 THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 

by the wringing of another heavy indemnity from China and the 
cession of more territory to both the allies, while Russia seized 
the opportunity to possess herself of immense Ameer provinces. 

This war was also followed by widespread insurrections, par- 
ticularly those in Kansu and Yunnan. These were followed by 
the French seizure of Tonquin in 1867, the Japanese invasion of 
Formosa in 1868, English advances from Burmah, and the Russian 
occupation of Hi and eastern Turkestan, which last was so unjust 
and brazen a piece of aggression that Russia herself acknowledged 
it and withdrew, relinquishing all claims to the territory by the 
treaty of 1881. 

The harshness and arrogance of the foreigners in their deal- 
ings with the Mandarins in local affairs precipitated frequent trouble. 
The great massacre at Tien-Tsin in 1870 was brought on by the 
arbitrary and unnecessary refusal of the French consul to allow 
the Chinese Mandarins to inspect the Catholic orphan asylum, 
with a view to discovering the cause of an epidemic that was 
raging therein. This was followed by the murder of Mr. Margary, 
the guide of the English expedition through Yunnan, and the ex- 
action by England of an indemnity of $250,000 for this single life. 

DISASTROUS WAR OF BLACK FLAGS. 

Then the French advance into Cochin China resulted in the 
disastrous war of Black Flags and the treacherous bombardment 
and destruction of the Chinese fleet by the French Admiral Courbet 
in the river Min. Having requested and been allowed to pass the 
forts and occupy the Chinese naval anchorage, on the plea that it 
was unsafe for his fleet outside, he drew up alongside the Chinese 
fleet and, absolutely without warning, opened fire upon it and liter- 
ally blew it out of the water. 

The Japanese war had even less reason to justify it. China 
had scrupulously complied with the terms of her treaty. But Japan 
with a serious rebellion on her hands, needed something to divert 
the attention of her people from the troubles at home, and an op- 
portunity to try out her new army. The results are known to all. 
China lost her ancient dependency of Corea, Japan received For- 




PRINCE KUNG, CHINA 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 389 

mosa and an indemnity that repaid her, four times over, her outlay 
on account of the war. Russia, with a diplomacy comparable only 
to that of a highwayman, secured Manchuria, Port Arthur, and the 
Liau-tung peninsula, while England accepted the " lease " of Wei- 
hai-wei. " Spheres of influence " were then claimed by Great 
Britain, France, Russia and Japan, and finally Germany seized 
Kiao Chau and claimed for her sphere the province of Shantung. 

DASTARDLY ACT OF PIRACY. 

Heretofore the claims and aggressions of the Powers had been 
confined to outlying districts, but this last seizure, a piece of piracy 
that stands absolutely unequaled, was upon the sacred soil of one 
of the original eighteen provinces of the Empire. The effect upon 
the Chinese people of the seizure of this part of Shantung, the 
home of Chinese civilization, the birthplace of their greatest sages 
and warriors, can be compared only to the effect that a seizure of 
Bunker Hill and Boston harbor would have upon us. 

In the seized territory the Chinese villagers were driven out, 
some from homes that had been in their families for over 2,000 
years, and received no compensation in return. In laying out the 
proposed railroad through Shantung the engineers became offended 
at protesting villagers and, bringing up an armed force, completely 
exterminating two villages as a " warning " to others. 

The present outbreak of the Boxers, which began with the 
murder of Dr. Brooks on January 2d, was precipitated by a German 
engineer who brutally killed a boy by knocking him over the head 
with the handle of his riding-whip. Nor is it strange that Chinese 
feeling should have been directed against the missionary in whose 
home this engineer stayed that night without even mentioning 
the reason he sought shelter. Priests who came to teach religion 
have stayed to usurp the functions of local magistrates. 
) But is it useless to multiply incidents, for it is an unbroken 

tale of coercion and bad faith, of ports forced open at the cannon's 
mouth, of exorbitant indemnities for the most insignificent claims, of 
rich concessions wrung from an unwilling government by duress, 
of the total disregard of Chinese sentiment, and the brutal outrage 



390 THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 

of Chinese feeling, of the utter ignoring of private rights and 
international comity. 

CHINESE FEAR PARTITION. 

In addition to this the sensational papers of Tien-Tsin and 
Shanghai have for the past two years discussed little else but the 
coming " partition " and the probable " division" of the Empire, 
until the natives have been thoroughly alarmed. No wonder the 
people have come to look with suspicion or hatred upon all foreign- 
ers and are filled with resentment against a dynasty that has failed 
to preserve the honor and integrity of their Empire. 

Dynasties have lasted in China as long as they have protected 
the people in their rights, and the present uprising is intent on 
either relieving the throne from foreign coercion or on establishing 
a new dynasty in its stead. Foreigners, as usual, have shown a 
disregard for established customs and laws that they would not 
dare display in any other capital of the world. Guards sent to 
protect the legations have roamed about Pekin trespassing where 
Chinamen themselves are not allowed to go, creating disturbances 
and alarming the superstitious by the reckless discharge of firearms 
from the city wall, while their reported attempt to enter the For- 
bidden City, those sacred precincts reserved exclusively for the Son 
of Heaven, could not fail to incense the people and gain recruits 
for the rebels. 

The bombardment of the Taku forts was worse than a mistake ; 
it was a criminal blunder. They could have been taken as easily 
as they were, whenever the necessity arose. The Chinese army 
would probably have prided itself on its protection of the foreigners 
had the foreign forces shown their intention to rely on that protec- 
tion, but the action at Taku threw the entire Chinese army into 
the arms of the Boxers, and left the foreign colony in Pekin at the 
mercy of the mobs. They who have sowed the wind are reaping 
the whirlwind, and the crimes and outrages of a cycle of dishonor 
have been wiped out in one of those blind outbreaks of human 
rage, the final protest of races against cumulating encroachments 
on their rights. 



THE MANDARIN AND HIS POWER. 391 

The Mandarins have carefully cherished knowledge of these 
wrongs and emphasized them in their discourses to the people. 
There are but two great Englishmen that they thoroughly respect — 
the dead Gordon and Sir Robert Hart, the present head of the 
customs department. Sir Robert Hart, by his tact, judgment, 
knowledge of Oriental character and faith in Oriental honesty has 
succeeded in making himself an influence for good with the Man- 
darins, a class of Chinese officials soon to disappear as such. The 
Mandarin cannot much longer retain his hitherto despotic power. 









CHAPTER XXV, 

Sacred Character of the Emperor, 

What it is to be Emperor of China— Assassination a Powerful Weapon— Unlimited Power 
of the Ruler — Number of His Wives — His Moral Conduct — How He Dresses— His 
Palace — Revenue Granted Him — General Character of the Chinese Emperor — The 
Empress Dowager— Her Life Story. 

CONFUCIUS taught that the Emperor in ascending the throne 
in the name of heaven was none the less to be worshiped 
whatever might be his virtues or vices. In the Shuking 
Confucius wrote : 

" However old the cap, we put it on our head ; however clean 
the shoes, we put them on our feet ; Kie and Chew were vile 
wretches but they were kings ; Ching-thang and Wu-wang were 
great and holy persons, but they were subjects." 

The principle of imperial authority in China is absolute but 
there are many limitations to the sovereign power. Traditional 
rights of provinces, sanctioned by the custom of ages, are respected 
by the government. Public opinion holds that " the Emperor and 
the subject who violate the laws are both equally guilty." A pop- 
ular proverb runs : 

" Secure the affection of the people and you will secure the 
Empire ; lose the affection of the people and you will lose the 
Empire." 

In the nine rules of Confucius, to the Emperor is recom- 
mended : 

Moral perfection, respect for the sages and parents as well as 
for officials and magistrates, paternal love of the subject, encour- 
agement of learning and the arts, hospitality towards strangers and 
consideration for his allies. 

Censors surround the Emperor and it is their function to keep 
him in mind of these precepts. Two hundred volumes are in his 
possession, which contain the rules of all the ceremonies of his 
court. From twenty to thirty writers are almost constantly at his 

392 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 393 

elbow whose duty it is to record for all future time what lie says, 
does and commands. With such a system, Reclus points out, it is 
almost impossible for an Emperor to keep his individuality and he 
becomes to a large extent a mere instrument in the hands of a mas- 
ter or faction. He is held responsible for the happiness and mis- 
fortune of his subjects. In truth he is not responsible for his own 

acts. 

WHAT THE EMPEROR YAO SAID. 

" Are my subjects cold/' asked the Emperor Yao, " I am to 
blame. ,, 

" Are they hungry, it is my fault." 

" Have they met with any disaster, I take the responsibility.'' 
Said Ching-thang when speaking of the woes of his people : 
" I alone am guilty. I alone must be immolated." 
One authority went so far as to assert that regicide was legiti- 
mate when the sovereign defied justice : 

" There is no difference between murder by the sword or by 
maladministration." 

To the Emperor is given the golden seals and jade stone, 
symbols of supreme power. He must pay his Empress an official 
visit every five days and bend his knee in her presence. He may 
have three other legitimate wives but the Empress takes prece- 
dence of them. His concubines are limited by the book of ceremo- 
nies to one hundred and thirty. The Imperial household is gov- 
erned by a special master who looks after the education of the 
princes. The Emperor chooses his heir from his children of legit- 
imate birth. Should the Emperor die all social life is suspended. 
The nobility wear white for twelve months. The common court 
attendants wear it but for one hundred days. The hair is left 
unshaven and barbers during the period of state mourning become 
state pensioners. 

While alive a majority of the functions of the Emperor are 
delegated to the Neiko which is the cabinet. This cabinet draws 
up the laws, issues decrees and attends to their execution. There 
are two presidents of the Neiko and they are known as imperial 
chancellors. They propose the laws to the council. They draft 



394 SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 

the form of public mandates, they submit official documents to the 
Emperor which he signs with a red pencil and they order the pub- 
lishing of all decrees in the Kingpao, or official journal, known in 
this country as the Pekin Gazette. State questions, before they 
reach the Grand Council, or the Neiko, may be submitted to the 
tribunal of the censors, or to the court of justice or to the Lupu, 
which latter is composed of the masters of finance, civil service, 
board of works, war, rites and penalties. Another department has 
charge of the colonies, that is, of all the Empire outside of the 
eighteen provinces of China proper. The foreign office, known as 
the Tsing-li-Yamen, was formed in 1861. It is now the most 
important department in China and is composed of the heads of 
other departments. 

THE EMPEROR IS RESTRICTED. 

If the Emperor of China could turn aside all the barriers that 
lie between him and his people and know what the conditions were, 
under which his subjects lived many reforms might be accomplished 
now that under existing circumstances cannot be. The Emperor 
is forever and ever hedged about with court attaches and court cer- 
emonials which solely tend to keep him in utter ignorance of the 
needs of his vast dominion. 

Living such a life it is not strange that if the Emperor be at 
all evilly disposed that he should look upon his subjects as fit 
objects of prey. It matters little to him what they may know or 
think of his vices. 

On the other hand, if he be one of the good Emperors he is 
constantly affected by his inability to break away from his court 
and assist those beneath him. 

In the descriptions given of the wonders of Pekin, the Sacred 
City, we have seen the character of the wonderful palaces erected 
there for the use of the Emperor and his princes. He maintains 
his court in them at an expense of not less than $5,000,000 a year, 
which in China is an enormous sum of money, and it has been 
estimated by some authorities that his annual revenues reach as 
high as $20,000,000. China has no accurate governmental book- 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 39£ 

keeping system so that it is impossible to say precisely what 
moneys are allowed the Emperor. 

Contemplation, though, of what the Chinese Emperors have 
been through all the centuries of Chinese growth brings to notice 
the story of the " woman of the Chinese Empire." As has been 
stated other women than the present Empress Dowager have been 
rulers of the Empire, but of them all she appears to be the foremost. 
The story of her career is almost as fascinating as that of the 
Emperors. Frank G. Carpenter thus describes her most important 
characteristics and her life. 

THE EMPRESS DOWAGER OF CHINA. 

"It is now almost two years since the Empress Dowager of 
China, the storm-center of the sanguinary disturbances so fatal to 
foreigners there, practically deposed the Emperor and again took 
the government into her own hands. The Emperor had fallen 
under the influence of the more progressive of the Chinese. The 
Chinese-Japanese war had shown him the need for China's reform 
along the lines of Western civilization. He was advocating the 
building of railroads and the establishment of modern factories, the 
reorganization of the army and the institution of Western methods 
of education. 

" He had directed that newspapers be established in the princi- 
pal cities, and that schools and colleges be instituted to teach the 
Western sciences and languages. He was doing away with the 
exclusiveness which surrounds the court, and had called about him 
a number of Chinese who had been educated abroad to aid him in 
pushing his reform measures, when all at once he found himself 
seized by his own soldiers and imprisoned in one of his own palaces 
in the heart of the forbidden and most exclusive part of his capital 
city. At the same time such of his pro-Western friends as had not 
received warning and fled were executed and every one connected 
with reform in any way was degraded. 

"All this was the work of the old Empress Dowager, who 
then sent out an edict that she had again assumed the control 
of the government, under the plea that his majesty, the Emperor, 



396 SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 

was in Ill-health and not able to act. As a matter of fact, lie was a 
prisoner. 

" His prison was a royal one — a gilded palace, with a gorgeons 
roof of porcelain of imperial yellow, bnt a prison nevertheless, sur- 
rounded by a moat filled with water and guarded by draw-bridges 
which were always up unless Her Majesty directed them to be 
lowered. The Emperor took with him his wives of different ranks, 
and his lady attendants, but they were all the friends or slaves of the 
old Empress Dowager, the real Empress of China being her niece. 

" He had his hundreds of servants, but they were all eunuchs, 
as is the custom of the palace, and all were directly subordinate to 
Pi Tsiaou Li, who was the bosom friend and confidant of the old 
Dowager, was not only one of the richest, but one of the most 
influential men in China. 

" The Empress Dowager extended her power to every part of 
the government and to every province of China. The reformers 
who fled were pursued. Kang Yuh Wei, one of the Emperor's 
chief advisers, escaped only by means of an English gunboat and 
took refuge in Singapore. An offer of one hundred thousand taels, 
about $70,000, is said to have been offered for his capture or assas- 
sination. The newspapers have been discontinued and some of the 
schools given up. 

" Such of the viceroys as had inaugurated modern improvements 

ordered them discontinued, and one of the greatest of the viceroys, 

who had bought a modern carriage, dared not use it, but went back 

to his sedan-chair and his liveried coolies. The officials who were 

friendly with foreigners became afraid to manifest themselves, and 

apparently the only outsiders with any influence at court were the 

Russians, with whom the Empress Dowager seemed to be as hand 

and glove. 

A GREAT WOMAN'S LIFE. 

" The real story of the Empress Dowager is prosaic, but it has 
its romance, nevertheless. Her Majesty was the daughter of one 
of the noblest of the Manchu families, and as such, when the 
Emperor Hienfung, wanting to add to his imperial harem, sent out 
notice, she with all the other pretty princesses of the Tartar nobility 





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SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 397 

between the ages of twelve and eighteen made their way to the im- 
perial palace to be looked over in order that he might have the pick. 

" There were hundreds who came with her and the lot was 
weeded out again and again by the chief lady of the palace, the 
then Empress Dowager, until at last but two or three of the best 
and the prettiest were reserved to be presented to His Majesty. 
Of these one was the girl who became Empress Dowager. 

" When she was taken into the palace she was only a concu- 
bine or secondary wife, and her full name was Tzehi Toanyu Kangi 
Chaoyu Chuang-cheng Shokung Chinhien Chungsih. She was, 
however, tall and straight and handsome, with a skin the color of 
a yellow peach, jet black hair and eyes of sparkling black. She 
was witty and as winsome as she was beautiful, and she at once got 
the love of His Majesty. 

" Within a short time she presented him with a child, the first 
he had yet had, the boy who afterward became the Emperor Tung- 
chi. This so delighted the Emperor that he raised her to the rank 
of Empress, giving her the title of the Western Empress to dis- 
tinguish her from his first wife who was known as the Eastern 
Empress. The two Empresses had separate palaces, one at the 
east and the other at the west part of the Forbidden City. 

WHEN THE EMPRESS DOWAGER BECAME POWERFUL. 

" It was not long after this that the Emperor Hienfung died. 
There are some uncharitable enough to say that the Empress 
Dowager got tired of him and put him out of the way. This is 
hardly probable, however, for she was his favorite, and as such to a 
great extent the power behind the throne. At any rate, she became 
more powerful immediately after his death, and from that time, 
almost forty years ago, she has been the real ruler of the Chinese 
Empire 

" At first she had the Eastern Empress and Prince Kung asso- 
ciated with her in the regency, which was to last only until her son 
Tunchi became of age. The two Empresses were supposed to run 
the government, but all of their edicts had to be approved by Prince 
Kung. The Maternal Empress did not like this at all. She could 



398 SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 

control the Eastern Empress but she could not control Kung, and 
she had to get rid of him. She did so in a curious way. She 
made her boy, who was yet little more than a baby, issue an edict 
that Kung had been grossly disrespectful to him as Emperor and 
that for this he must be degraded. 

This was done. His titles were taken from him and he was 
confined, just as afterward the Emperor was confined in one of the 
palaces. Three days later an edict from the baby Emperor was 
published stating that Prince Kung had with flowing tears thrown 
himself at the foot of the throne and confessed his fault and that 
His Majesty had thereupon pardoned him. He was thereupon 
given back his rank and offices, all but that of having participation 
in the regency with the Empress. From that time on the Empress 
Dowager was the undisputed ruler of China. She used Prince 
Kung, now favoring and now degrading him as her humor or her 
plans dictated. 

EMPRESS DEATH CAUSES GREAT EXCITEMENT. 

" The two Empresses seem to have had no friction, the Maternal 
Empress being the real power. At any rate, we hear nothing of 
the other in the story of imperial affairs until her death about 1882. 
At that time there was great excitement in China, for it was sup- 
posed that it was the Empress Tzehi instead of the Empress Tzu 
An who was sick. Native doctors from all parts of China came to 
the palace, and one foreign physician, an eminent Scotchman prac- 
ticing medicine in Pekin, was asked for advice. He refused to 
prescribe, however, upon being told he could not see the imperial 
patient and that his medicines must be administered second hand. 
As a result of the illness the Empress died, although the Chinese 
doctors did everything in their power. 

J " When her son became of age the Empress Dowager pretended 
to abdicate in his favor. She was still the real ruler, however, and 
when he died in 1875 of small pox, as it was claimed at Court, she 
picked out her nephew, Kwang Su, the much-persecuted Emperor, 
to succeed him. She did this noth withstanding his wife, the Em- 
press Aleulet was soon to have a child. 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 399 

The Empress died, However, before the child came, and the 
enemies of the Empress Dowager say Her Majesty had something 
to do with the death. It was at any rate convenient in raising no 
opposition to the existing regime. While the little Emperer was in 
his childhood there was of conrse no opposition to the rule of the 
Empress Dowager. She was monarch throughout and ruled abso- 
lutely until the young man began to take things into his own hands, 
when she had him deposed. 

A MOTHER MAKES TROUBLE. 

One of her troubles with the Emperor was, it is said, on 
account of his mother. This old lady, the wife of Prince Chun, 
had called upon the Empress Dowager at her palace in Eho Park, 
some distance from Pekin, and had remonstrated with her concern- 
ing her demands that the young Emperor should so often come out 
to consult with her when his health and the interests of state 
demanded his presence in the palace. This made the Empress 
Dowager very angry. She ordered her servants to take away the 
Emperor's mother's sedan-chair and made her ride back to Pekin 
in a common cart. The old lady was so mortified that she died the 
next day. This happened in 1896 and it caused an estrangement 
between the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, which increased. 

" The last straw which broke the back of her Majesty's 
patience was the report that the Emperor had ordered his soldiers 
to imprison her in her palace and to prevent her having anything 
to do with the government. It was then that she sent for Yung 
Lo, her friend, the head of the army and ordered him to seize the 
Emperor and confine him. 

" The Imperial Court at Pekin has been perhaps the most 
exclusive of the courts of the world. The Emperor is father, 
priest, king of the Chinese nation. He is the Son of Heaven, the 
chief god of the people. He stands higher religiously than either 
Pope or Czar. He prays and sacrifices for his people, and every- 
thing connected with him is holy. 

" It has been much the same with the Empress Dowager, who 
has been pulling the strings which made this imperial puppet act. 



400 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 



An Empress is too holy to be looked at by common eyes and her 
feet are too sacred to tonch anything but clay of the imperial yellow 
hue. I had visible evidence of this during a recent visit to Pekin. 
I was riding through the streets early one morning when I saw 
several hundred half-naked coolies, pushing wheelbarrows of yellow 
dirt in front of them. A little farther on I saw others scattering 
such dirt over the road, covering it smoothly with the yellow clay. 




A MOUNTED MANCHU ARCHER. 

" At the same time I could see the householders tacking up 
straw mats and cloths in front of their houses and officials stretch- 
ing blue cotton across the side streets. I asked the reason and was 
told that the Empress Dowager expected to take an airing that 
afternoon and that the streets were being prepared for her. Our 
minister was apprised by the court of the fact, and he thereupon 
warned all Americans to keep away from the line of march, and I 
was told that all the Chinese living along it would get down on 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 401 

their knees and bnmp their heads against the ground in adoration 
while her Imperial Majesty passed. 

" At such times Royalty is always accompanied by Manchu 
archers, and the Peeping Tom who dares to look out through a 
hole in the mats is liable to get an arrow in his buttonhole of an 
eye. Her Majesty has always been a great stickler for form, and 
the Pekin Gazette is full of the punishments meted out for the 
infraction of the rules of the palace. 

" One of her chief complaints against the Emperor was that 
he received his ministers improperly, allowing them to stand and 
sit before him instead of making them kneel as formerly. The 
grooms of the palace have often been handed over to severe punish- 
ment for not having her Majesty's carriage ready on time, and a 
young servant named Kau was executed for presuming to submit 
a memorial to the throne criticising her. The old Empress Dow- 
ager had the young man brought into her presence and asked him 
if the memorial was his own idea. He replied that it was where- 
upon she directed that his head be cut off. 

RECEIVES FOREIGN LADIES. 

" Until recently Her Majesty received her officials behind a 
screen, allowing no man to look upon her divine features. Of late 
years, however, she has given them audiences face to face, and 
when the brother of the Emperor of Germany, Prince Heinrich, 
visited Pekin a year or so ago, she gave him an audience and act- 
ually shook him by the hand, a thing heretofore unknown in Chi- 
nese history. 

" It was the Empress Dowager who first admitted foreign 
ladies to the court and palaces of the Emperor. This first hap- 
pened two years ago and it was repeated again last year (1899). 
The first reception was a great step in bringing the Chinese into 
communication with the rest of the world. It was regarded as a 
precedent and as an important mark on the pages of modern 
China. The manner of the reception was most interesting. It 
was described by one of the ladies in attendance. Said she : 

" ' The reception was remarkable in that it was the first ever 
26 



402 SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 

given to foreign ladies, and also in that we were the first foreign 
women Her Majesty had ever seen, as up to that time no foreign 
woman had ever been in the palace. 

u c The reception required a long time for its arrangement. 
There were no rules of procedure and the leading Chinese officials 
and their wives labored over it for weeks. They held many con- 
ferences with the foreign ministers, but after a time all was satis- 
factorily arranged and the day for the call was set. It was decided 
that we should meet at the house of Lady MacDonald, the wife of 
the British minister, and that she as do3 7 enne of the diplomatic 
corps should lead the procession. 

" ' The reception was held in the daytime. This was contrary 
to the usual custom of the palace, where the audiences are usually 
at night, or about daybreak. It was at ten o'clock when we assem- 
bled at the British legation and we were taken from there to the 
Imperial City by a mounted escort of Chinese soldiers. Each of 
us rode in an official chair carried by four Chinamen in livery, and 
each was accompanied by two of the petty Chinese officials, or 
mapoos, belonging to her legation. 

IMMENSE ESCORT FOR SEVEN LADIES. 

" ' There were seven ladies in all, and the procession made up 
of these chairs, those of the interpreters, and the regiment of Chi- 
nese cavalry was a long one. It took its way slowly through the 
wide streets of the Tartar City and on into the Imperial City to the 
gates of the Forbidden City, the Holy of Holies of the Chinese 
Empire, and to the place in which the palaces of the Emperor and 
his Court are. We were taken through great walls, across moats, 
over bridges of marble, past many guards and officials of different 
rank. 

"' At the gate of the Forbidden City the chairs were halted and 
we all got out. Here we found the toy railroad train given by the 
French to the Emperor waiting for us, with a crowd of eunuchs 
ready to push it over the track. There are several thousand of 
them employed about the palace. 

" ' We entered the cars and were carried over a little railroad 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 403 

through a vast extent of beautiful gardens, by lakes and winding 
streams, past one great palace after another, and at last stopped at 
what I might call the Hall of Audience. Here we found a large 
number of the ladies of the palace waiting us. They were beauti- 
fully dressed in Manchu costume and with them were many 
eunuchs. We were met by the ladies and conducted by them up 
the stairs into a large room, at the back of which, on a platform 
with a little table in front of her sat the Empress Dowager. 

DRESS OF THE EMPRESS DOWAGER. 

" ' Her Majesty was dressed in a pale-yellow silk gown, beauti- 
fully embroidered with flowers and dragons of the same color. She 
wore the head-dress commonly worn by elderly Chinese women, 
her hair being fastened in a knot at the back just below the crown, 
the front of the head and a part of the forehead being concealed by 
a silk band heavily embroidered with pearls of large size. 

" ' I was struck with Her Majesty's youthful appearance. She 
was sixty-four, but she looked ten years younger. Her face was 
plump and free from wrinkles. She had a high forehead, elon- 
gated perhaps by the custom of the Chinese ladies of pulling out 
the hairs at the edge of the forehead with tweezers. She had a 
strong face and in youth must have been very pretty. During the 
audience she frequently smiled, and I could see no signs of that 
cruelty of disposition with which she has been charged. 

" ' Beside the Empress Dowager sat the Emperor, a pale, deli- 
cate-looking Chinese youth, and behind her were many young 
Manchu princesses clad in gay costumes, with their hair done up 
in the gorgeous butterfly fashion common to the court. All of 
these waiting maids were delicately painted and powdered. The 
Empress Dowager was not. 

" ' Lady MacDonald made the address in behalf of the foreign 
ladies. She spoke in English, and her words were translated into 
Chinese by the interpreter of the British legation. Her Majesty 
replied in an address which was read by Prince Ching, the Pre- 
mier of the Empire, and which was thereupon translated into Eng- 
lish. In this address Her Majesty made us welcome to the palace 



404 SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 

and to China. She said she was glad indeed to receive us as for- 
eigners and that we should be friendly to one another for were we 
not all of one family ? 

" l After this Prince Ching presented us each in turn to Her 
Majesty, and we were then taken into a great banquet hall where 
the Empress Dowager, the Empress and the score and more of 
princesses sat down to dinner. The banquet was fine, being made 
up of many courses and consisting of both Chinese and foreign > 
dishes. Each lady was supplied with chopsticks and a knife and 
fork and could use which she pleased. 

" ' After the banquet the Empress Dowager again met informally 
with the ladies, drinking tea with each of them in turn, and in 
some cases throwing her arm about one and embracing her. 

" ' At this time she gave each lady a present of a beautiful gold 
ring set with a pearl as big as a marrow-fat pea, three silk dresses 
from the royal looms and a set of two dozen combs. Throughout 
the whole audience she was exceptionally gracious, and her man- 
ners were as polite and affable and at the same time as dignified 
and ladylike as could be those of any Empress of Europe.' " 

Such is the Empress Dowager of China in court. 

CHINESE POLITENESS AND RESPECT. 

With an Emperor controlled as the present one has been, and 
with an Empress Dowager of this type, it is curious to note what 
the outcome of their efforts is in the Empire which they control. 
Emil S. Fischer notes some very curious results from the form of 
government and the habits and customs imposed upon the ruled 
by the rulers. He writes : 

" The Chinese wealth and distinction never walk in the 
street ; they either ride on horeback or are carried in chairs. But 
if by chance the person riding or being carried should meet a • 
friend of equal or higher rank, also traveling by the same me^ns, 
both parties will alight and make the peculiar kowtow bow. This 
kowtow, when speaking to the Emperor, consists of kneeling, and 
bowing the forehead thrice to the ground. The foreign ministers 
were formerly compelled to do this when received by the Emperor. 



SACRED CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 405 

" Lord Amherst, British Ambassador in 1816, refused to make 
the kowtow and was not received by the Emperor. In 1873, after 
many years of controversy, the rule was changed so as to allow 
foreign diplomats to be received standing. For the last two years 
they have brought it so far as to address the Emperor directly on 
the Imperial platform. In China it is customary in addressing 
persons to greet them with titles of distinction, such as 'Hung erh' 
(My Elder Brother); 'Lao yeh,' (Your Venerable Highness), or 
' Ta lao yeh,' (Your Great Honor), as well ' Ta Jen,' (Your Excel- 
lency) . 

" A most peculiar thing about the Chinese is that they do not 
know the value of time. We have had some convincing proof of 
this in the late uprising. The Chinese were in no hurry to let us 
know that the diplomats and foreign residents of Pekin were alive. 
The manner in which the Chinese ignore time may also be noticed 
in another way. If a Chinaman announces his visit for official or 
other business you may be sure that he will arrive from an hour 
to a half a day later, sometimes even on the next da}', without 
deeming it necessary to apologize for the delay. 

" When the caller finally does arrive, there is generally a long 
exchange of polite phrases and words. Afterwards you drink tea 
and smoke pipes. During all this time you talk of politics and 
the weather, and possibly, just before the caller intends to leave, 
he will casually bring up the purpose of his, visit." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Punishment for Crimes. 

Penal Code of China — How Long it Has Been in Existence — Punishment for Various Crimes 
— Frightful Tortures Imposed Upon Prisoners — Method of Execution — Manner of De- 
tecting Crime — Number of Annual Executions — Populace Generally Honest— Great 
Criminals Almost Unknown. 

IN many points the similarity of the Chinese with the English 
law is startling — the classification of crimes — homicide, larceny, 
robbery, burglary, embezzlement ; the definition of each, for 
example, the division of homicide into justifiable and excusable; 
the requisites for larceny, or the entry by night for burglary, are 
such as every student at the Temple is familiar with, even the 
advowson of a Chinese temple, following the rule of our canon law, 
belongs to the founder, and one begins to doubt whether the author 
has not somewhat squared eastern practice to fit western theory. 
On the other hand, obvious differences abound — the use of torture 
as a method of obtaining evidence, the contempt of life and the fre- 
quency of the death sentence, and responsibility of the family for 
the offenses of all or any of its members, would shock the Old 
Bailey practitioner. The first, though not recognized, is always 
used, and if a man has been " warmly questioned " it means he has 
been " beaten to a jelly." 

THE CHINESE EXECUTIONER'S SYMBOL. 

Family responsibility is a remarkable feature of the Chinese 
system and far-reaching in its effects ; it works both ways ; not 
only are members of the family responsible for one another's crime, 
but injury to one member is aggravated by injury to another. If 
a person kill three members of the same family the slayer himself 
will suffer the lingering death, his property be confiscated and his 
wife and children be involved in the offense. 

Next to the Emperor the public official in China most feared 
and observed by the people is the royal headsman or executioner. 
Of all the many methods adopted by the Chinese to end the life of 
406 



PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 407 

a criminal decapitation is considered most ignominious. Hanging 
in that land, as in nearly all others, is regarded with horror by the 
condemned, but if a Chinaman be hanged his soul has a chance of 
journeying across the " Golden Bridge " to heaven. If he is be- 
headed he is lost for all eternity, and for him there is no future life. 
The Chinese headsman wears a ring of silver, curiously 
wrought and embossed. This is the most important symbol of his 
office. People meeting him on the street and knowing by the ring 
on his hand what his official duties are shrink from him as they do 
from lepers. He stands alone among all the people, feared, hated 
and loathed. To him criminals who are to be beheaded are brought 
on the day set for execution. He it is who causes them to kneel 
with their hands tied behind their backs. Their queues are either 
held in front of them by an assistant executioner, or coiled on the 
top of the head. The neck is thus left bare for the sword. This 
sword is a long, single-edged blade, slightly curved like the scim- 
iter. It has an enormously long handle, and this is gripped with 
both hands by the headsman. The condemned kneel in a semi- 
circle and the headsman starting at one end of the line, with a 
slight movement of the wrist, somewhat similar to that in the 
lunge with the foils, cuts their heads off, one after the other. The 
sword is not swung. Two strokes are not necessary. All is done 
neatly and expeditiously, and to all intent painlessly. 

HAS CUT OFF HEADS A THOUSAND YEARS. 

The penal code which provides for their beheading has been in 
existence over 1,000 years, and it is estimated that there are annu- 
ally 12,000 people beheaded within the Empire. During the 
height of the Tai-Ping rebellion there were frequently as many as 
400 executions per day on the Canton ground. Governor Yeh, of 
Canton, boasted that he had put to death 70,000 Chinamen. When 
the English captured the city in 1857 and gained temporary pos- 
session of the place, they investigated the prison outrages, and for 
tha time mitigated them to a great degree. They found 6,000 
prisoners confined in the four prisons. Many of the poor wretches 
had been bastinadoed until they could not walk, while other f . had 



408 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

horrible gashes in the abdomen or thighs, were half starved and 
covered with festering sores. 

Death by the Lin-Chi, as known to the law officers of China, 
means " cutting up into ten thousand pieces." The victim is 
fastened securely to a cross and then the executioner begins his 
work. He cuts strips of skin from over the eyes, from off the 
cheeks, the flesh from off the fleshy part of the arms and legs and 
the skin from off the breast. The flesh and skin thus cut are left 
hanging down in strips. He then stabs the victim in the abdomen 
with a sword, and finally cuts off his head, which is put in a pail 
or cage and hung up on the city wall or nailed to a bamboo pole 
and exhibited in a public place with placards, stating the crime 
and warnings. It is not an infrequent sight to see a cage with a 
ghastly head peering out of a tree during great disturbances. 

" Cutting into pieces " is the most ignominious of all capital 
punishments. Women as well as men are made to suffer this 
death. It is the general punishment for parricide, adultery and 
extreme cases of treason. 

Executions usually take place outside the city wall, but some 
cities have execution grounds, as in Canton. There is an alley 
in Canton twenty-five feet wide by seventy-five feet long, with hun- 
dreds of earthen jars arranged in tiers along the rear of the build- 
ings that enclose *it. A space in the centre is reserved for the 
actors in the terrible drama. When the head is cut off it is placed 
in one of the jars, and if not exhibited is left there to decay, while 
the body is cut into pieces and scattered abroad or taken outside 
the city and thrown to the scavengers. 

SOME TYPICAL TORTURES. 

A favorite torture in China is what the natives jocosely call 
the " monkey grasping the peach." The culprit is hung on a rod 
or pole by one arm. The rod is fitted under the right arm-pit and 
the right hand is tied to the right leg at the calf. The left arm is 
forced under the left knee and also tied to the right hand — that is 
the thumbs are tied together. And there the wretch is suspended 
on the rod grasping his own leg. 



PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 409 

A purely Chinese torture is the standing in a cage. The vic- 
tim is suspended by his neck with only the very tips of his toes 
touching the bottom of the cage. Pirates and robbers have been 
left to die thus of starvation and exhaustion. 

Many torturers have whips with hooks all over the lash. To 
extort a confession or money they give a blow, and if the culprit 
does not confess or comply with the demand the lash is jerked 
away and another terrible flesh-stripping blow is given, and so on. 

The rack is in China, as it has been in all other countries, the 
superlative of all that is horrible. Squeezing the fingers between 
boards by means of cords and compressing the ankles until all 
semblance of bone is gone and the ankles are nothing but a horri- 
ble mass of jelly is the consummation of all brutality ; and this is 
common and always has been done in China, and with the sanction 
of high officials. There are other tortures committed that the gov- 
ernment does not sanction, but as it does not prohibit them they 
are inflicted by petty officers principally to extort money. 

THE CHINAMAN IS ACCOUNTED CRUEL. 

It goes without question that from the Western point of view 
the Chinaman is abhorrently cruel and possesses absolute indif- 
ference to the sufferings of fellow creatures. These are peculiar 
characteristics of the Tartar and Mongolian which, while they pre- 
vailed in the Latin and Anglo-Saxon world for a number of 
centuries, have in a sense disappeared there now. It has been 
stated that Japanese and European soldiers captured during the 
present troubles have been forced to undergo the Lin-Chi but the 
proof for this is not at hand. A quite common punishment, though, 
for petty offenders is the use of the cangue. This is a hard collar 
of wood placed around the neck of the person convicted of light 
offense. When locked it prevents the prisoner feeding himself, 
or of slaking his thirst. If he does not die from lack of food or 
drink it is because of relatives or friends who supply him with 
these necessities as he wanders through the streets. He can only 
sleep at night while standing up. With the collar on he cannot 
recline or stoop over without injuring his neck. Madness often 



410 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

overtakes the unfortunate victims of the cangue, and they rush 
from pillar to post, babbling and shrieking. To foreign eyes it is 
a sight, once seen, never to be forgotten — a horror of horrors'. 

HOW CRIME IS DETECTED. 

The penal code of China is clear, precise and logical, but harsh. 
There are no recognized advocates and if the Mandarin allows 
friends or relatives to plead, it is entirely an act of coudescension 
on his part. Being relatively far less numerous than in Europe, 
the magistrates decide cases in a much more summary manner. 
Still armed with the right of inflicting torture, they exercise it with 
the same severity as was formerly practised in the West. Scourg- 
ing, tearing out the nails, crushing the ankles or fingers, hanging 
by the armpits, and a hundred other excruciating torments are in- 
flicted for the purpose of extracting confessions or revelations of 
accomplices. In this manner crime is detected. Fortunately the 
nervous system of the Chinese is far less sensitive than that of 
Europeans. 

All capital sentences are submitted to the Emperor, and delayed 
until autumn, when the final decision is made, and the names of 
the reprieved encircled by a stroke of the vermilion pencil. But in 
times of disorder or political revolutions the provincial governors 
are armed with absolute power and move about attended by bands 
of executioners, who are kept busily engaged at their sanguinary 
work. 

The native tribunals in the European concessions at Shanghai 
and the other treaty ports are assisted by foreign residents, whence 
the expression " mixed courts," by which they are usually known. 
In these tribunals torture is never applied, at least in the presence 
of the European judges, and in Hong Kong the English have also 
abolished torture. There is even some hope that it may eventually 
disappear from the penal code of the Empire. 

These mixed courts form an interesting social feature of 
Shanghai, where " offences are tried before two judges, one Chinese 
and one foreign. One of the English judges took me with him one 
day and I sat on the bench next to the Chinese official, who had 



PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 411 

the rank of Chih-Fu,'' writes Gill. " The room was fairly large, 
and the judges' table raised on a low platform. The space in front 
was divided into three portions by railings ; the policemen, wit- 
nesses, etc., were on the right, and the prisoner was brought into 
the centre division led by his queue. He was obliged to remain on 
his knees during the trial. 

" This man had pretended that he was a broker, and had gone to 
the different European firms, from each of which he had obtained a 
sample of sugar, which he afterwards sold retail. He was convicted 
and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. The Chinese official 
at this stage of the proceedings offered me a cigar, and tea was 
brought in ; after which refection another prisoner was arraigned 
for driving a jinnyrickshaw without a license, and for which he 
received twenty blows with a stick. The next had stolen a watch ; 
and the last, in a crowded thoroughfare, had refused to * move on.' 
It was a very amusing sight, and strangely like ' orderly room ' in 
an English barrack." 

When any of the richer classes of a district are dissatisfied 
with the conduct of a Mandarin, they are never prevented from in- 
stigating the lower classes to make disturbances by the fear of 
personal punishment. 

SYSTEM OF FALSEHOOD AND CORRUPTION. 

Some years ago a magistrate having been killed during an 
outbreak in the east of the province of Kwangtung, the provincial 
judge was sent from Canton with a strong force to seize and punish 
the criminals. On his arrival, however, he found a large body of 
men assembled in arms to oppose him, and the matter was disposed 
of by a secret compromise, as so frequently happens in such cases 
in China. 

The wealthy members of the community, who had instigated 
the murder of the district magistrate, awed by the force brought 
against them, bought about twenty substitutes ready to personate 
the true criminals. They then bribed the son of the murdered 
man with a large sum to allow these men to call themselves 
the instigators, principals and accomplices. The judge, on the 



412 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

other hand, being obliged by the code of the Board of Civil Office 
to execute somebody, or see himself involved in punishment, 
knowing also that if he attempted to bring the real offenders to 
justice they would employ all their means of resistance, ending 
possibly in the defeat of his force and his own death, gave way to 
these considerations, supported as they were by a bribe, and ordered 
the twenty innocent substitutes to be put to death. 

This is one of the many instances in which the pernicious effects 
of the practice of personating criminals make themselves apparent. 
A system of falsehood and corruption has been engendered by it 
that is appalling, and, as in this case, leads frequently to the results 
which cannot be contemplated without a feeling of horror. 

SUICIDE CUSTOMARY. 

The customary Oriental way of escaping the dishonor of de- 
feat is suicide. In i860, when the Taku ports were taken many 
Mandarins took their own lives, as well as lives of numerous offi- 
cials, and when the British captured Ningpo and Ching-kiaug, 
scores of women, imagining that they would be subjected to brutal- 
ity by the foreign soldiers, slew themselves in the presence of their 
husbands, who followed their example. The victors found dozens 
of bodies in wells and ponds belonging to private residences. 

The Chinese are more addicted to suicide than any other people 
and under certain circumstances the act of self-destruction is con- 
sidered the most virtuous and heroic imaginable. This is particu- 
larly true of civil or military officers who refuse to survive defeat 
in battle or an insult offered to the sovereign of the country. Opium, 
hanging and drowning are the favorite methods adopted, and the 
unfortunates, believing that beyond the grave the shades of the 
departed are clad in garments like those the defunct wore at the 
time of death, usually put on their best clothes in preparation for 
the deed. 

On a previous occasion the Emperor's summer palace w r as 
destroyed as a lesson to the government, but if it is found that the 
present rulers are responsible for the deeds recently committed by 
the Boxers, in their uprising, the whole of the Forbidden City will 



PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 413 

doubtless be razed to the ground, and the injury to the sensitive 
feelings of the official class will be frightful. 

On the other hand, if the government is able to clear its skirt 
of accountability, it will be required to inflict punishments on a 
wholesale scale, and this will be accomplished in many ways pecu- 
liarly Chinese. The leaders of the rebels, or the principal scape- 
goats, will be sliced to death — a mode of execution while barbarous 
and cruel, is the most scientific known. 

According to the rules governing the process the victim is cut 
into a specified number of pieces, which may be 120, 72, 36 or 24. 
If there are extenuating circumstances, the number of pieces may 
be reduced to seven or eight, which brings death relatively soon. 
But in every instance the succession of cuts is regulated as exactly 
as those used by a butcher in dividing up an ox. 

SUICIDE REGARDED AS HONORABLE. 

Suicide is considered less disgraceful than any form of death 
at the hands of the public executioner. The victim receives a 
handsome lacquered box, wrapped in silk of the citron yellow color 
sacred to the Emperor. On opening the receptacle a white silken 
cord is found lying within, neatly coiled. This is a silent though 
stern suggestion to the recipient to take his own life by means of 
the rope thus provided. If he fails to act upon the hint within 
twenty-four hours the executioner claims him. 

The only way in which the Imperial authorities can make 
their own good faith manifest in the present uprising is by whole- 
sale executions. The bodies of the offenders, save in a few cases 
where reclaimed by relatives, will be thrown into huge pits, while 
the heads will be consigned to tubs of quicklime and thus con- 
sumed. Exceptions will be made with the heads of ringleaders of 
the Boxer movement, which will be exposed in cages in various 
cities and towns, so as to be a warning. 

Minor offenders will lose one or both ears, and others will have 
their names and crimes tatooed on their cheeks — certainly a most 
efficient penalty as far as it goes. Slow strangulation on the cross 
will be reserved for special cases, the rule governing this method 



414 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

requiring that the Sheriff shall attach his seal to the knot of the 
rope, while at the head of the cross, just above the head of the 
malefactor, is posted a strip of paper with the name and offence 
written upon it. 

The frenzy for martyrdom is still active in the world. To-day 
hundreds of men and women in this country are eager to go to 
China and take the places of the missionaries who have died and 
are perishing at the Boxers' hands. The Boxers are fighting and 
seeking to destroy the foreign devils, being led by their priests 
to believe that they will go straight to glory. The execution of 
10,000 or 50,000 of them will have no appreciable effect as a lesson 
to the mass of the population. Even under ordinary circumstances 
Chinese are wonderfully indifferent to death. 

A great many wholly innocent persons are sure to suffer pun- 
ishment with the guilty at the conclusion of the present episode, 
because in China it is customary to extend the penalty to the rela- 
tives of the offender. Chester Holcombe speaks of a Chinaman 
who was convicted some years ago of having broken open the tomb 
of a prince, and robbed the coffin of valuable ornaments which 
it contained. 

Though nobody else had anything to do with the crime, his 
entire family, numbering thirteen persons, and comprising five 
generations, from a man ninety years of age to an infant two 
months old, were put to death. The criminal himself and his 
parents were sliced to death, of the others the men were beheaded 
and the women strangled. The children of the man who tried to 
assassinate the Emperor Ta-hing, early in the century, were exe- 
cuted by strangling. 

SHORT NOTICE OF EXECUTION. 

Convicted persons usually undergo frightful tortures in the 
prisons before they are executed, many of them dying from oft re- 
peated floggings, and a deadhouse is a necessary adjunct to every 
jail. Sometimes convicts are starved to death as a mode of punish- 
ment. Those who are to be executed receive only a few minutes' 
warning. When the hour arrives an officer enters the prison, 



PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 415 

carrying a board ou which is pasted a list of names of the offenders 
who are to atone for their crimes. 

This list he reads aloud, and each prisoner whose name is 
called answers it, being made to sit in a basket, in which he is 
carried into the presence of the judge. After answering a few per- 
functory questions as to his guilt, he is carried to the execution 
ground, pinioned. His friends bringing him a few cakes, a little 
soup, or, if they can afford it, betel-nut, which acts as a narcotic. 
Persons of wealth and distinction under such circumstances are apt 
to intoxicate themselves with wine. 

The Taotai of Tien-Tsin, during a recent war, was appealed to 
by foreigners in behalf of the Chinese wounded and sick, who were 
suffering horribly and receiving no nursing or other attention 
whatever. He seemed surprised and replied : 

" What do I want with wounded men ? The sooner they die 
the better. China has plenty of men." 

HUMAN LIFE VERY CHEAP. 

This remark affords a key to many matters in China that 
puzzle the foreigner. Men are a drug in that country and human 
life is not considered valuable. But the populace are generally 
honest, earning the commercial reputation " a Chinaman's word is 
as good as a bond," and great criminals are almost unknown, so 
severe are the punishments inflicted for petty offences. 

While piracy to any large or organized form has disappeared 
from the borders of all truly civilized, and from most uncivilized 
lands, it still exists to a vigorous degree along the coasts and navig- 
able rivers of China. All historians of China and all modern 
travelers and foreigners resident in that country find frequent occa- 
sion to speak of the dangers to local commerce from the presence 
of these freebooters, of the frequent robberies and other outrages 
committed by them and of the occasional fruitless efforts of the 
Chinese government at their suppression. 

" Foam of the sea " is the expressive title which the Chinese 
apply to these piratical bands, whose numbers and strength are so 
great even at the present time as to constitute a standing and 



416 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

serious menace to the safe and orderly course of traffic on the 
navigable waters of the Celestial Empire. 

The pirates's fleets have become so strong at times as to be 
able to defy the regular government forces, making it necessary 
for the latter to call in foreign aid. Early in the century a fleet of 
600 pirate junks made their rendezvous at the mouth of the Pearl 
river and plundered and murdered the peaceful inhabitants of the 
coast towns of Kwangtung, for a long time unmolested. 

Finally, in 18 10, the governor of Canton made an arrangement 
with the Portuguese for assistance in suppressing them. The 
piratical fleet was attacked and blockaded for ten days by the com- 
bined forces, but without much damage ; they would probably not 
have been overcome at all had not a rivalry broken out between 
the two pirate leaders, leading to a fight between their factions, and 
the consequent defeat of both by the allied troops. 

PIRATES CALLED " BLACK FLAGS." 

It was these same sea-robbers who, in alliance with the brigands 
on land, figured prominently in the insurrection of 1854 '55 and 
who were among the victims of the wholesale executions which fol- 
lowed the triumph of the imperial forces. In later years in the 
troubles at Annam and at adjacent points on the Chinese coast, 
these marauders came to be known under the suggestive name of 
"Black Flags," and as such for a long period held in terror the 
coast people on both sides of the border. In fact, the " Black Flags " 
have continued their nefarious business to this day, living by plun- 
der by land and sea, and securing immunity from punishment often, 
it is said, either by bribing the government officials or by sharing 
their plunder with them. 

Pirate bands of a less formidable character infest all the great 
river-ways running into the interior of China, and are especially 
numerous in the neighborhood of the large cities, where they lie in 
wait in inlets and other secluded recesses of the rivers to pounce 
upon any solitary or defenceless junk that happens to come near. 
So common is the risk and danger of these pirate attacks that 
convoys of boats bringing grain and other products from the 



PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 417 

interior towns make special provision to protect themselves from 
plunder. 

Unwary foreigners traveling by boat along the Chinese rivers 
have frequently suffered from the raids of these pirate junks. The 
general government make a brave show now and then at suppress- 
ing these thieving gangs, and a few are caught, tortured, sliced up, 
or otherwise put to death in approved Chinese fashion, but the 
work is never done thoroughly nor followed up in a way that re- 
sults in any real diminution of the pirate bands. • This form of 
thievery, in fact, seems to have gained somewhat of that popular 
sanction which in China is accorded to every custom or practice 
having a record of long years behind it, and is not likely to be 
broken up until China has a modernized government. Of the 
pirates in the neighborhood of Canton Mr. B. C. Scott, the British 
Consul at that city says : 

LAWLESSNESS AND ROBBERY. 

"Constant use of the words 'piracy and pirates' in connection 
with the lawlessness in Canton waters and on the West river is 
liable to give the public a false impression of the state of things 
prevailing there, and to conjure up pictures of Captain Kidd and 
other buccaneers. Lawlessness and robbery, clan feuds and fights 
are rife; the population is armed with rifles and revolvers sufficiently 
to constitute a danger to the peaceable and well-conducted, and even 
to the provincial authorities themselves. 

" But it would be difficult in the face of the statistics of the trade 
for 1899 to show any injury to trade. During the year not a single 
bale of British goods has been lost in numerous cases of armed rob- 
bery. The returns of foreign trade do not warrant the belief that 
the import of foreign goods has even been hindered. 

"The 'piracies' are gang robberies with arms, but without, for 
the most part, actual violence. The usual method is as follows : A 
Chinese passenger boat, capable of holding about 200 passengers 
starts on its trip to tow a steam launch. Either at the point of 
departure, or at some calling station en route a gang of men with 
revolvers go on board in the guise of passengers. If they suspect 



418 PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES. 

that any examination for arms will be made they conceal their re- 
volvers in sealed jars, supposed to contain pickles or preserved 
fruits, sometimes addressed to an official or some prominent person 
further up or down the river, and then when they arrive at some 
place where they have arranged to be met by confederates they 
'hold up' all the passengers. 

" The launch temporarily disappears and the highwaymen 'go 
through' the boat, taking all money, jewelry, and valuables, and 
then take their departure, the launch returning to the boat and 
continuing its voyage. 

" When it is the launch itself which carries passengers the same 
course is pursued; the gang then takes possession of the launch, 
compelling the engineers to attend the engines, and then either run 
up some creek, where confederates are waiting for them, or use the 
launch to make other robberies on launches, or passenger boats, or 
junks. But they never hold a launch for more than a few hours, 
and never dream of making off with it as a prize. 

" When a gang has finished with a launch the men usually take 
a polite farewell of the master and crew, and sometimes give them 
a few dollars. In fact, the whole matter has been grossly exagger- 
ated, and a false impression has been created in the public mind at 
home and in China. Since Li Hung Chang became Viceroy mat- 
ters have assumed a different complexion. Robberies committed 
on launches and passenger boats have temporarily ceased. But 
the mischief is deep-seated, and the evils caused by years of mal- 
administration cannot be eradicated in a day." 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Exaggerated Strength of the Army. 

The Navy of the Japanese War— Fighting Qualities of the Chinaman — Weapons Most Pre- 
ferred — Past Conflicts and Their Results— Physical Courage Often Lacking— Arsenals 
and Their Capacity — Knowledge of Iron and Steel — Use of Foreign Armament — Many 
Foreigners With the Army. 

CHINA'S army comprises the " Eight Banners, v nominally 
containing about 300,000 men. The national army whose 
normal strength is 550,000, has about 200,000 available for 
war. Besides these forces there are mercenary troops ready, Mon- 
golians and other irregular cavalry. 

Irregular cavalry are nominally 200,000 strong, but like 
everything else in China they mostly exist on paper. They num- 
ber but 20,000, and are of no military value. The total land army 
on a peace footing is put at 300,000 and on a war footing of about 
1,000,000, but the army as a whole has no unity or cohesion. 

There is no proper discipline, the drill is merely physical 
exercise, and many of the weapons are long since obsolete, but 
since April, 1895, British firms have shipped to China 71 guns of 
position, 123 field guns, 297 machine guns, and a German firm has 
supplied China with over 400,000 Mauser rifles and 3,000,000 
rounds of ammunition. From this it will be seen that the Chinese 
are not as backward as regards war material as has been supposed. 

During the war with Japan the Chinese navy disappointed 
those who regarded it as an effective firing force. Since then a 
number of modern vessels have been added to the fleet. 

HAS NO ARMORED CRAFT. 

The Chinese navy has never recovered from its conflict with 
Japan, and to-day cannot boast of a single armored craft in the 
whole fleet, or two fleets, for so the service is divided. This at once 
narrows its service, but it does not preclude the commission of some 
pretty serious damage to the fleets or transports of the allied pow- 
ers. The imperial service has eight protected cruisers of modern 

419 



420 EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

design, the oldest being but ten years old. Of these ships two of 
them have 14.5 and 16 knot speeds, while the six remaining can do 
from 20 to 24 knots and are evolutions of the x\rmstrong cruiser of 
fine rapid-fire gun power. The American New Orleans and Albany 
are smaller versions of the class. 

There are but six other cruisers of older date — 14 and 15 knot 
craft — armed with pretty heavy Krupp guns of effective pattern. 
The Hai-Chi and the Hai-Tien, built in 1897, and 1898, are of 4,300 
tons displacement. They each have a main battery of two power- 
ful 3-inch and ten 4.7-inch quick firing rifles, with a supplemental 
force of sixteen 3 -pounders, six 1.1-pounders and a number of 
smaller quick firing pieces. They carry five torpedo tubes and 
have complements of nearly 400 persons. 

SWIFT AND DANGEROUS CRAFT. 

With a forced draft speed of 24 knots these ships would be a 
serious meuace to transports not heavily convoyed, and to 
unguarded merchantmen they might prove even a more costly dan- 
ger. The Hai-Shen, Hai-Shew, and Hai-Yung, built in Germany, 
in 1897 and 1898, are vessels of 3,200 tons displacement, and can 
do their 20.7 knots under forced draft. Each of them carry three 
5.9-inch and eight 4-inch quick firing Krupp rifles, together with 
an auxiliary force of a dozen small rapid-fire pieces. 

Of gunboats, or torpedo cruisers, as the official list is pleased 
to call them, there are nine, one of 24 knots, one of 22 knots, three 
of 16 knots, and four of 11 knots — the last four could hardly do 
much against the modern speedy torpedo boat. Of gunboats and 
torpedo gunboats of older design the navy has eleven, but they are 
of more defensive than offensive value. 

Of torpedo-boat destroyers, there are four new German-built 
vessels of 35 knot speed — boats that are equalled to anything of the 
kind possessed by any other naval power. Of China's torpedo boat 
flotilla there remain of the fleet she had before the war with Japan 
thirty first class torpedo boats, to which should be added two fine 
German boats of recent date. These vessels can make from 18 to 
24 knots, and are to be counted a pretty formidable force, There 



EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 421 

are eleven smaller boats of a 19-knot type, also survivors of the war 
with Japan. Many of these torpedo boats have been kept in con- 
stant use in the customs revenue service, and their crews are per- 
fectly familiar with the mechanical handling of the craft, which, 
before everything else, is the prime consideration in the successful 
management and endurance of this type of fighting vessel. 

NAVAL STRENGTH UNDERESTIMATED. 

As a modern navy estimates, China's present force would cer- 
tainly have no show in a stand-up fight with armored ships, but 
with her cruisers and gunboats told off for commerce destroying 
and transport attack, and her torpedo boats and destroyers in hardy 
hands set against the enen^'s forces of all sorts — for a torpedo 
boat's sting may mean a battleship's death — the Chinese navy 
becomes an}^thing but a passive force. In fact, inspired by that 
reckless spirit easily aroused in the Chinaman half-way well led, a 
Chinese torpedo boat or destroyer might accomplish a great deal 
more than a modern battleship in the same hands, for the fear of 
death and the facing of appalling odds are things weighed lightly 
by the Mongolian mind when once thoroughly aroused. 

Generally, the ships of the Chinese navy have been under- 
manned, but there are waterbred and seafaring natives enough to 
man any number of Chinese fighting ships. In physique, the 
native sailorman is a fine man, and of his endurance the whole 
world knows. In the battle of Yalu, the Chinaman proved in many 
instances the sterner stuff in him and that baptism of fire has done 
a vast deal to strengthen the fighting spirit of the present Chinese 
jacky. Mentally, he is a fatalist, and the prospect of death does 
not affect him if he be properly led, and there are plenty of his own 
country men and men of other nations only too ready to lead him if 
occasion require. 

It is not generally known that the Chinese have their own 
naval schools — two, in fact, and that they are no longer dependent 
upon foreigners for their engineer and executive officers. 

The college at Nanking was established by the Chinese govern- 
ment in 1890, at the instance of Viceroy Tseng-Ko-Chuan, and, 



422 EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

under the direction of Prefect Shen-Tun-Ho, with the object of 
providing executive and engineering officers for the Nanyang, or 
southern squadron, then consisting of fourteen vessels of modern 
type ; the Peiyang, or northern squadron, being supplied with 
officers by the college at Tien-Tsin, established in 1882, and de- 
stroyed by the allied forces during the recent attack. 

GREAT CARE FOR NAVAL STUDENTS. 

The college at Nanking provides for the education and main- 
tenance of 120 students, sixty being trained for the Hne and other 
half for engineer duty. They are entered for a course of from five 
to six years' training in the college class rooms and workshops, 
with the torpedo, at the Shanghai Arsenal, and on board the train- 
ing ship Wantaio, which is attached to the college for that purpose. 
During the whole of this time they are housed, clothed, fed, pro- 
vided with all necessary books and instruments, and paid a small 
monthly salary by the government — their relatives or guardians 
guaranteeing, under penalty, that they then remain in the govern- 
ment service as officers in the Chinese navy. 

The staff consists of four instructors in the executive branch, 
the chief instructor and instructor afloat being Britons, while their 
assistants passed through Greenwich and had experience in the 
English and Chinese navies. In the engineering branch the chief 
instructor is an Englishman, his first assistants being graduates of 
the Tien Tsin and Nanking colleges, and engineers in the northern 
squadron during the Chino-Japanese war. The torpedo branch is 
in the hands of Chinese instructors trained in France, and the drill 
and gymnastic instructors were trained by German officers. There 
are of necessity a number of teachers of Chinese, the students being 
drawn from various provinces, speaking different dialects, and 
knowing but little, if any, of the language used in official circles. 

The sum granted yearly from the imperial exchequer for the 
whole of this work is 42,000 tsaoping taels, approximately $30,000. 
Each student, therefore, costs the government to house, feed, clothe, 
provide with books and instruments, and even liberal pocket money 
from a Chinese point of view, $250 a year, or $1,500, to turn out 



EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 42;] 

an efficient executive or engineer officer pledged to government 
service for life. 

Everything is done in the English language, and no better 
proof of the work done by the student can be had than the testi- 
mony of a British naval attache : 

" I have been much interested in examining the students' 
papers. I consider them exceedingly well done. They are wonder- 
fully good with regard to style, neatness, and clearness, as well as 
regard to correctness of answers. Papers worked by our own 
students would not be generally better done." 

The present Chinese minister to England, Lo-Fun-Loh, is a 
graduate of the now abandoned Foochow Naval College ; and the 
commissioner of the Tien-Tsin Naval College to-day, Taotai Yen- 
Foo, completed his studies in England, and was the first man of 
his year at Greenwich. 

The students, like those at Tien-Tsin, are sons of gentlemen, 
and are admitted from 16 to 20 years of age. 

CHINA'S LAND FORCES. 

In addition to the regular naval force there are a dozen pretty 
heavily armed river gunboats that have done revenue service. 
These vessels range in speed from seven to twelve knots, have 
been built since 1886, and would prove invaluable adjuncts to the 
Chinese army when working in the shoal reaches of the rivers 
beyond the approach of the heavier foreign vessels of the gunboat 
type. There are several transports — vessels from 1,200 to 1,400 
tons, which could be made considerable factors of naval force, 
while the war junks which have filled many of the southern rivers 
would easily afford disciplined complements for the modern fight- 
ing craft of the navy. 

It must not be forgotten that piracy has been a daily calling 
with thousands of the coast-born Chinese for hundreds of years, 
and men, with that undercurrent of desperation, can be found in 
plenty to do the bid of reckless leaders of torpedo boat destroyers, 
and the like in pursuit of a guerrilla warfare. 

Of trained military force, as the modern application of the 



424 EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

term is understood, it is not likely that China can boast at present 
of more than 60,000 or 70,000 men, but of military retainers or 
untrained coolies there are in reserve quite 300,000 or 400,000. 
Of the trained troops, the bulk of whom are armed with a Mauser 
pattern repeating rifle, most of which have been made right in the 
Chinese arsenals, military and naval attaches speak in compli- 
mentary terms. The men are a fine lot physically, well set up, 
and snappy in their movements in drill. Their discipline is excel- 
lent, and they hesitate at the performance of no manceuver, no 
matter how novel. 

The cavalry proper and the irregular cavalry are also a fine 
body of men, and mounted on their sturdy native ponies, they go 
through their evolutions with the same quick, elastic movement 
characteristic of the other trained troops that have felt the influ- 
ence of European teaching either directly or indirectly. The 
artillery, equipped with a large number of typically up-to-date ord- 
nance, are capable of effective work, and the same active spirit prevails 
there as with the other two arms of the service. It is in transpor- 
tation and an organized commissariat that the Chinese army is 
weak ; but with the vast numbers of available coolies the difficulty 
of efficient transport can be remedied to a large extent. 

SOURCE OF GREATEST WEAKNESS. 

The provisional independence of each division of the Chinese 
military forces is the sources of its greatest weakness, as was proved 
in the war with Japan ; but the lessons of that unsuccessful struggle 
have been taken to heart, and, to some extent, the error has been 
corrected. 

In equipment the troops that have not been trained in accord- 
ance w r ith European methods, are armed with an heterogeneous lot 
of fighting tools, among which the ancient and ineffective gingal 
takes a prominent part. The gingal is a weapon some nine or ten 
feet in length, weighing between forty and fifty pounds. Three 
men are required to work it, and, when read}' to be fired, two rest 
it upon their shoulders while the third tries to point it and to fire. 
The terror of such an arm is more one of imagination than per 



EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 425 

fcrmance, and the mobility of troops armed with such a burden is 
sure to be seriously handicapped. 

Of arsenals China has seven. One at Tien-Tsin, one at 
Shanghai, one at Nankin, one at Hankow, one at Foo Choo, one at 
Canton and one at Ching-tu. While the really fine mechanical 
equipments of these stations are largely occupied in turning out 
useless gingals and some other obsolete guns of more modern pat- 
tern, still a considerable share of work is given over to manufactur- 
ing ordnance and small arms of a thoroughly up-to-date type, 
including fine repeating rifles, heavy navy and coast defense guns, 
and siege and field pieces of recent design. The workmanship, in 
most cases, is of a superior order, and the machinery in the shops 
is of the best British and German make, while the superintendents 
or foremen are technically trained foreigners, or Chinese similarly 
educated abroad. 

With the native facilities of coal and iron ore there is no 
reason why these facilities should not make China independent for 
a long time of European commodities, and, devoted to making and 
repairing the modern fighting arms of the service, would make the 
subjugation of the Chinese a pretty difficult task. 

ESTIMATE OF CHINESE SOLDIERS. 

The Chinese for many centuries have had a proverb that " no 
good man will ever become a soldier," and this proverb is in har- 
mony with the whole make-up of the Chinese people. Just before 
the Chinese-Japanese war there w T ere great predictions as to what 
would happen. It was stated that the world would have to reor- 
ganize her forces if the Chinese army were to take the field, that 
the Chinese were among the best soldiers in the world and that 
they were the most astute leaders, and the bravest followers of any 
people on earth, besides a lot more of the same tenor. 

British war experts were quoted as saying that if China armed 
herself and drilled her soldiers properly she could swamp or tram- 
ple down with numbers any nation that would come against her 
simply because she could put so many millions of soldiers on the 
field. To back up their statements they pointed to the way Geng- 



420 EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

his and Kublai Kahn and other Mongolians overran Europe seven 
or eight centuries ago. 

Now, as a matter of fact, seven or eight centuries ago China 
was at her best and Europe was at her worst. The methods of 
modern warfare had not yet been evolved, and the people who were 
the best horsemen, could shoot the best with the bow, throw the 
spear with the greatest force and accuracy, and at the same time 
besiege cities for the longest periods, were most likely to win, and 
as all these things were right in line with the accomplishments of 
the Mongolians, they were able to do what they did toward the 
subjugation of a large part of Asia — especially the less civilized 
portion — and at the same time frighten a large part of Europe. 

GENERAL MAKE-UP OF THE ARMY. 

From the first those who have lived in China have had no con- 
fidence in the Chinese army. There are practically no " good 
men " in it. It is little less than a combination of thieves, rascals, 
beggars and hoodlums. They know nothing about discipline ; they 
know nothing about the arts of war ; they know nothing about 
international ■ courtesy, the taking care of the sick and the 
wounded ; they know nothing about either paying or dressing their 
soldiers in a way which is calculated to develop either patriotism 
or self-respect. 

As they are practically without a national emblem, they have 
no " Old Glory " which makes the chills run over one and fills 
one's throat as it is seen carried by the sons or daughters of old 
veterans who u died for the old flag." Nobody ever heard of a Chi- 
nese soldier who was ready to die for the flag. He may fight 
because he hates the enemy, or because there is the hope of plun- 
der, but he knows nothing about the " love your enemy " principles 
in time of war, if, indeed, he does in time of peace. 

When this is said about the Chinese soldier, let it be under- 
stood that it is with the greatest possible respect and admiration for 
the Chinese character and people. They are a literary and not a 
warlike people. They are not drivers of the sword, but of the quill 
— or, more properly, the brush. They are the originators of every- 



EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 421 

thing that has thus far come from Eastern Asia which has contri- 
buted to Oriental civilization. War brutalizes, but the Chinese 
productions have contributed to the development of the arts of 
peace. 

The Chinese are therefore a peaceable people. Save in their 
great family squabbles, which can scarcely be termed civil wars, 
they have never conquered anybody. They have been repeatedly 
conquered — first by the Mongols, then by the Manchus — but while 
they were thus conquered in battle, they at once settled themselves 
to swallow, absorb, masticate, digest, anything one pleases to call 
it, their conquerors, and in one hundred years there was not enough 
Mongols left to " shake a stick at." They have been doing the 
same with the Manchus until at present the Manchu is an emascu- 
lated, opium-besotted nobody, who is ready to be vomited back on 
his own mountains, woods and plains, where he can live on bears, 
fish and fowls. 

Among all the great statesmen of China one will look in vain 
for a great Manchu statesman. There have been those who have 
been influential, but it was either because of their station or their 
relationships and not because of their statesmanship. In stiid}dng 
the history of the Empire it is found that her great statesmen, as 
well as her leaders in war, are Chinese, though no Chinese gen- 
erals can be looked upon as great save when compared with others 
of their own nationality. 

WERE FORCED TO RETREAT. 

The following incident will indicate the character of these 
" great generals" as they appeared at the beginning of the Chinese- 
Japanese war : When a certain general was about to drive the Jap- 
anese out of Corea he was asked if he knew the geography of Corea. 

" Geography of Corea !" said he. " What do I care about the 
geography of Corea? I will just go over there and have two or 
three engagements with them and that will be the end of it. There 
is no use of my bothering myself about the geography of the 
country." 

As a matter of fact he " went over " and had the engagements, 



428 EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

but the result was not what he had predicted. One of his soldiers 
who was laid up in a hospital after his return explained what hap- 
pened. He and the others in most of the hospitals were shot in 
the back, and when the doctors asked how that happened the reply 
was about as follows : 

" The Japanese," said this soldier, " came at us as though wild. 
We shot down those in front, but just as soon as a man fell in the 
front ranks some one from the next line would take his place. 
You can't fight people that way. When we shot down those who 
took the others' places some one would come and fill up the ranks, 
and on they would come. You can't do anything with people of 
that kind. They did not know when they were whipped. Some- 
body had to run, and as they would not, we did, and then they shot 
us in the back." 

PROMINENT GENERALS. 

During this war there were two generals who were prominent, 
one whose name is spelled Yeh, which foreigners pronounce as 
though it were spelled Yea. He was in charge of the army at first, 
but like a large majority of Chinese officials, there was a certain 
attraction about his hands that would not allow silver to pass 
through them. 

Yeh became rich, but the soldiers did not get their pay, and 
so after the great defeat at Ping Yang he was removed to Pekin 
and placed in the board of punishment's large brick enclosure, 
where it w r as designed to remove his head from the rest of his 
anatomy ; and another " great general," Nieh (pronounced by 
foreigners as though it were spelled Nay) superceded him. 

General Nieh is a large, corpulent, good-natured looking man, 
with crowfoot wrinkles going from the corners of his eyes toward 
his ears. He is a good laugher. When sitting he reminds one of 
good St. Nicholas, of whom it is said that a certain portion of his 
anatomy u shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly." Gen- 
eral Nieh has always manifested a kind disposition toward foreign- 
ers, and there has never been any trouble between his soldiers and 
the foreign residents in Tong Ku, or Tang Shang, or in any other 
part of the country east cf Tien-Tsin and Pekin. 



EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 429 

A disposition similar to that of General Nieh is that of Yuan 
Shih-kai. He is like General Nieh in his good nature, and like 
him in his general understanding of the powor of Western gov- 
ernments. When ex-Governor Yu Hsien was recalled General 
Yuan was appointed to take his place. He appointed his brother 
to take charge of his troops, and at once he began to put down the 
Boxer movement, but no sooner had this begun than the brother 
was recalled by the Empress Dowager. This, of course, was posi- 
tive proof that the Dowager was in sympathy with the Boxers. 

Notwithstanding this, General Yuan has steadily gained con- 
trol of things and is spoken of very highly by those who are in 
those disturbed regions. Some of the leading missionaries write 
that "it is evident that the military officials are doing all they can 
to put the movement down, but in this they are not very heartily 
seconded by the civil authorities." 

THE ANTI-FOREIGN GENERAL. 

The most anti-foreign general, and one who presents a direct 
contrast to the two just described, is Tung Fuhsiang. This gene- 
ral won his reputation in Kansu, the northwestern province, a few 
years ago, in his battles with the Mohammedans, then in revolt. 
All his life he has been shut off from intercourse with foreign gov- 
ernments and knows absolutely nothing about their power, the 
nature of their arms, and the character of their fighting ability. 
Because his army has been able to put down the Mohammedan 
rebellion, which was practically a war between two rabbles, he sup- 
poses that all this trouble with " foreign devils " is because of 
Christianity, and so he is not only anti-foreign but especially anti- 
Christian. 

His rabble incites fear among the natives, whether Christian 
or non-Christian, wherever he goes. Only a year or two ago, when 
it was known that he was about to come down about the region of 
Pekin, there was a general quaking among the country people, and 
awful stories were told about the cruelty of his men, and their dis- 
position to loot, to rob and to outrage the women of the sections 
through which they passed. The difference between his rabble and 



430 EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 

the armies of Nieh and Yuan is an indication of the salutary influ- 
ence their contact with foreign soldiers and the representatives of 
foreign governments has had upon them. 

It was formerly the custom in times of war for the Chinese to 
put to death any general who was defeated in battle. Not only was 
he beheaded but all the members of his family suffered the same 
fate, so that history is full of incidents in which the general when 
defeated took his own life rather than return and subject all his 
friends to such a sad fate. It was also the custom in times of war 
to loot, rob and outrage at the will of the soldiers, so that during 
the Chinese-Japanese war many of the better class of women had 
their poison all ready to take in case the Japanese came into the 

city. 

There is one other general who has in the Boxer uprising, 
become prominent. This is Prince Tuan, who has charge of the 
Imperial Manchu troops at Pekin. He is the father of the heir 
apparent, and the son of the fifth prince, as he has always been 
called. He is said to be one of the most warlike of all the imperial 
princes, if not the most warlike, but the stand he has taken with 
the conservative party, which, of course, was forced upon him by 
the fact that his son was chosen by the Empress Dowager as the 
successor of Kwang Su, has placed him in a very unfavorable light 
before the world. 

THE GREAT VICEROYS OF THE EMPIRE. 

It is said that the large majority of his troops joined the 
Boxers in the neighborhood of Pekin, and it was this fact that 
made the Boxer movement so strong and so successful in that neigh- 
borhood. There is no doubt that he was, like the Empress Dowager, 
in sympathy with them, and it was probably through his influence 
that General Nieh was rebuked when his soldiers killed 500 of the 
Boxers between Tien-Tsin and Pekin. His army sets the Manchu 
soldiers in a very bad light before world. 

There are two other men who rank higher among China's 
military leaders than any or all of the others put together. And 
yet they are not generals. They are the two viceroys, Li Hung 



EXAGGERATED STRENGTH OF THE ARMY. 431 

Chang, whom everybody knows, and Chang Chih Tung, who is 
almost unknown in this country. It is somewhat singular that these 
two men should have the names they have. They are the Smith 
and Brown, or the Brown and Jones of China, as indicated by the 
following Chinese proverb. In the Chinese primer for girls we 
have this couplet : 

" Have you ever learned the reason why your ears should 
punctured be ?" 

" 'Tis that you may never listen to the talk of Chang and Li." 

As a matter of fact, if the Chinese had listened to the advice 
of Chang Chih Tung and Li Hung Chang, China would be far on 
the road to progress at the present time. Li Hung Chang, as is 
well known, is the viceroy of the two Kiangs, and Chang Chih 
Tung is the viceroy of Hupeh, and Hunan. 

Chinese history tells of several women who have acted as gen- 
erals of armies. One of them was Mou-Len, a Chinese maiden, 
who, taking up the Official Gazette and seeing her father's : :me 
among those who were ordered to the front to defend the Empire 
against a foreign invader, determined to follow him to the war, led 
her countrymen to victory, and returned home a full-fledged Chinese 
general — all this without allowing the secret of her sex to be discov- 
ered. Such is the legend embodied in a poem which is learned by 
heart by the children of the Celestial Empire. 

The Chinese counterpart of the Maid of Domremy did not end 
her career either as a virgin or martyr, for the parallel ended with 
her return home from the war, when she married. Another Chinese 
woman won her honor as a soldier in the Japanese war. When 
the Chinese army engaged with the Japanese at Pin Yang, Corea, 
Li Pan, a brave general was killed in battle. His wife led mem- 
bers of her sex and defended her country. 



A 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Opening the Sealed Gates. 

First Treaty Ports-Ho. The y ^O^^tf^V^^^^y 

The Foreign Quarters. 

S earlv as i S i6 China admitted to her borders and to her com- 
mercial centres Arabs, Malays, Siamese and even Portugese 
as traders The Empire then had no great need for loreign 
trade owing to the abundance and variety of its products. Never- 
heless quite a number of nations were welcome to her ports and 
were well treated until the inevitable result followed ; that ; s, he 
result always incident to the white race coming in contact with the 
people of another race and color. The foreigners began to act as 
if they were conquerors and came into physical conflict with the 

natl The term was soon applied to them of " foreign barbarians." 
« Thev also began to quarrel among themselves and, looking upon 
all of them as members of one nation, the Chinese asked in amaze 
ment why they thus plundered and murdered each other There 
was nearfy a century of this bickering and clashing and then the 
ports were" closed against them. If they were opened at all it was 
under conditions that ivere not only burdensome but insufferable. 
As early as the seventeenth century the Chinaman said of the 

foreigner at his gates : , , 

« The barbarians are like beasts and will not be governed by 
the same principles as civilized beings. To attempt to guide them 
bv the great maxims of reason could only end in disorder. The 
arbitrary is the only true method and the best means of governing 

1116 "itTS" the opium trade began. This led to endless trouble 
and finally the bringing of a war by England for the benefit of the 
opium merchants and as a result of which China was defeated, 
ceded to England the island of Hong Kong and threw open to 
toreigu trade the five ports of Canton, Amoy, Fu-chew, Ningpo and 
432 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. i:\l\ 

Shanghai. This opening of the ports came in 1842, but the con- 
ditions of the treaty were not well observed by the government. 

THE WAR OF 1857. 

Foreigners were again driven out of Canton. Certain local 
and government monopolies were re-established. The English 
urged, the French insisted, the American demanded that for- 
eigners be again freely admitted to the Empire. A second 
war came in 1857 in which the French joined the English. 
Canton was bombarded and the foreign fleets entered the Pei-ho 
river. Peace was made at Tien Tsin in 1858, only to be followed 
by a second war in 1859. This time the French and English 
stormed the forts of Taku, defeated the Chinese army in a pitched 
battle and reached the walls of Pekin. By the treaty of i860, fol- 
lowing this war, new treaty ports were thrown open and their num- 
ber was materially increased in 1878. There are now more than 
thirty treaty ports, besides concessions granted for ninety-nine 
years to foreigners as sites for warehouses and residences. Russia 
was a great gainer by the opening of these ports, as since that time 
she has been permitted to have consuls and commercial agents at 
Chugichak, Cobdo, Uliasutai and Urga with the free use of the postal 
route from Kiakta through Kalgan and Tung-chew to Tien-Tsin. 

The treaty ports are located from Pakhoy on the north of 
Tonking to Ying-tze at the mouth of the Tiao-he. European set- 
tlements have also been permitted in Hainam and Formosa so that 
from the frontiers of Iudo-China to Corea the products of the Em- 
pire are now being directly exported to all foreign markets. As a 
result of the opening of these ports, Canton has become an important 
shipping centre. Tien-Tsin has also acquired great importance 
and Shanghai and Hankow. Since the opening of the treaty ports 
the foreign exchanges of China have increased until in 1892 they 
exceeded $250,000,000 a year. In 1895 the ^" u ^ value of the trade 
of the Empire had reached about $700,000,000 a year. 

Many years before a considerable number of American or Eng- 
lish traders had reached Chinese ports, the Chinaman had formed 
his opinion of the white man. That the white race was divided into 

28 



434 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES 



nations bearing the titles of German, French, English, American 
and so on, was unknown to him. All white nations looked alike 

to him, and the 
conduct of one 
white man or 
of a dozen gave 
to him, from 
his point of 
view, a perfect 
illustration of 
what the con- 
duct of all 
would be. De- 
spite the injus- 
tice of this rea- 
soning, the 
Chinaman in 
h i s isolated 
position can 
hardly be held 
to severe ac- 
count for decid- 
ing that the 
less he had to 
do with the 
white race, or 
barbarians, the 
better off he 
was. It was 
unfortunate for 
him and unfor- 
tunate for the 
street scene in canton. Western world 

that he too frequently, in the late centuries past, found the white 
man to be a freebooter, a violater of the commonest laws of hos^ 
pitality and a tyrant if power came into his hands. It was doubly 




OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 435 

unfortunate that the wisest and best of the Western world did 
not reach China at the time when her ports were freely open and 
the hand of welcome was extended to all who cared to trade with 
her. The Empire had had centuries of amicable trade with 
India. The people of the two races freely commingled. At one 
time their literature and their established morals blended, and it 
is quke possible that if Western nations had first met the China- 
man as India did that the tragedy of Pekin would not now be 
written and the world be threatened with new convulsions of war. 

PART AMERICA PLAYED. 

The average Chinaman of 1850 or 1900 makes little distinction 
between the white Englishman and the white American. All white 
men are " foreign devils " to him, and from his own point of view 
he probably has many reasons for thinking so. So in 1853 and 
1854 and 1855 Americans were killed as well as Englishmen 
at Canton and all because of the deadly opium of " cherished 
commerce." 

Captain Andrew Hull Foote of the Portsmouth, and under 
Commodore Armstrong of the American navy, was ordered to pro- 
tect the surviving Americans in Canton. He established fortified 
posts in the city, but did not co-operate with the English. 

" Damn'd if I'll stand for opium ! " is the historical remark 
attributed to him. But there was fighting going on afloat and 
ashore, and it happened that on November 15, 1857, while Captain 
Foote was rowing past one of the Chinese forts he was fired upon. 
He had the American flag flying, but the Chinese paid no attention 
to it. Foote fired his revolver at the nearest fort, but he was opened 
on with grape shot at 200 yards and had a narrow escape. The 
next day the Portsmouth bombarded the forts. 

On November 20th the San Jacinto, the Levant and the Ports- 
mouth bombarded the fort guilty of the first assault on Captain 
Foote. Then the doughty captain, with four howitzers and 287 
men, landed. Crossing the rice fields and wading a creek waist 
deep, he attacked the fort in the rear and the Chinese fled. They 
left fifty-three cannon behind them and forty dead. The guns of 



436 OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 

the captured fort were turned on the fort next in line, and that 
surrendered. Meantime 3,000 Chinese soldiers attacked Captain 
Foote, but with a single howitzer he put them to flight. The Celes- 
tials were literally mowed down. As a later historian wrote of it : 

" It was not glorious work, but it was absolutely necessary to 
the preservation of American citizens and property." 

Captain Foote captured four forts in all. Admiral Belknap, 
who was then a master, was mentioned for his gallantry while in 
charge of one of the launches. The Americans lost in all seven 
killed and twenty wounded. The Chinese stated they lost five 
hundred. For three years after this England was still at war with 
the recalcitrant u Chinee," who preferred to be slaughtered in battle 
to dying from British-India opium. 

RIGHTS GRANTED BY TREATY. 

The treaty which closed the French and English war against 
China in i860 granted the right of the Powers to maintain ambas- 
sadors in Pekin, to look after the interests of their governments 
and protect the rights of their citizens engaged in trade in the 
Chinese Empire. As the line of travel to the Chinese capital in 
those days was up the river to Tungchow and thence to Pekin 
through the Ha-ta gate, which is the east one of those piercing the 
south wall of the Tartar city, the envoys very naturally turned up 
the first street inside the gate, leading toward the imperial palaces, 
and this street is now the Legation Street of Pekin. 

Along this street, only a block within the city wall and run- 
ning parallel to it, are gathered most of the legations and the foreign 
stores, banks, clubs and hotels. Half-way down the street it crosses 
jsl bridge over an open canal that drains the lakes within the royal 
inclosures of the Forbidden City. Here, on the south side of the 
street, are the humble quarters of the American legation, and it is 
a never-ceasing cause of wonder and speculation among the Chinese 
how one who lives so simply as the American minister can exact 
such consideration and respect from those other envoys, who, es- 
tablished in magnificent old ducal palaces, maintain court with 
Oriental splendor. 




CHARACTERISTIC SCENE IN CHINA-NATIVE TEA SHOP 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 437 

OTHER FOREIGN LEGATIONS. 

Facing the American legation are the grounds of the Russian 
embassy, and up a side street, facing the canal and just outside the 
walls of the imperial city, stands the large enclosure or compound 
of the British legation, which is the largest in Pekin, covering an 
area of about six acres — a little city in itself. Several of the lega- 
tions were formerly the palaces of Chinese princes, and have the 
colored porcelain-tiled roofs and the great entrance-gates guarded 
by stone lions which mark such imperial residences, while within 
are the courts and pavilions that give such beauty and magnificence 
to those Oriental enclosures. 

These ducal palaces belonged to the crown and were assigned 
as residences to sons of the Emperor who are outside of the line of 
succession, but in China persons of royal descent lose one degree in 
rank with each generation until the third, which is again reduced 
to the level of the common people, and the palaces then revert to 
the crown for re-assignment. 

The British legation was formerly the palace of the Duke of 
Liang, and while the quaintness and Oriental magnificence has 
been preserved in the open pavilions, with their lacquered pillars 
and rich carvings, still the details have been much changed to suit 
the requirements of modern comfort, and there is little comparison 
between the luxuriously furnished salons of their present occu- 
pants and the severely simple halls of their former Chinese owners. 

Probably the greatest change that has been made is in the 
multiplicity of chimneys which the foreign residents have built in 
every available corner of these old palaces, for the winters of Pekin 
are cold, and the white man insists on keeping warm. These 
chimneys, which are unknown among the Chinese, have so often 
disturbed the spirits of wind and water in the Chinese capital that 
they have been more discussed than affairs of state. 

All of these legation compounds are surrounded by high brick 
walls that effectually cut off the sights, and most of the sounds and 
smells, from without, but there are numerous back gates and nar- 
row passages, and no other city in the world offers such facilities 



438 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 



for " underground " means of communication. The British lega- 
tion is adjoined on the west by the imperial carriage yards, and on 
both north and south by the compounds of friendly Chinese, while 
one of its back gates opens into a native market. So it is unlikely 
that there would be any difficulty in smuggling in ample supplies 
and provisions, when necessary, and it could hardly lack for water, 

since there are no less 
than six or eight wells 
within the legation- 
grounds. 

There are in the Bri- 
tish legation not only the 
establishment of the min- 
ister and separate estab- 
lishments for the first and 
second secretaries, but 
extensive quarters and 
barracks for consular stu- 
dents and military es- 
corts, the minister's pri- 
vate stables, and general 
stables for the rest of the 
legation. The legation, 
in fact, is such a large 
establishment that it has 
its own doctor and hospital and its own chapel and chaplain. The 
other legations, except the American, are all maintained on the 
same general plan, though not on so elaborate a scale. 

LEGATION LIFE. 

To some, legation life in Pekin might almost seem exile. 
For many years it was comparitively quiet, with tournaments in 
spring and fall, and the delightful summers in the old temples on 
the famous Western Hills, the only excitement being furnished by 
the excursions and side trips to the imperial potteries, where the 
beautiful yellow, green, and blue porcelains are made under the 




SIR CLAUDE MACDONALD, 
British Minister at Pekin. 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 439 

direction of a descendant of the original inventor, who died years 
ago ; to the beautiful deer park, with its thousands of antlered 
monarchs ; or to the ruins of the famous summer palaces, which 
were destroyed by the allies in 1 860. In winter the tennis courts 
are flooded and turned into skating rinks, which are housed over 
with sheds of bamboo matting, and become the scenes of regular 
carnivals. 

But since the outbreak of the Japanese war no one can justly 
complain of monotony in Pekin life. The city has been overrun 
with concession-seeking adventurers who have entertained like 
princes with a constant succession of state balls and dinners. The 
autumn and spring meets of the Pekin Jockey Club at its race 
course west of the city have even attracted the conservative old 
Chinese Mandarins, several of whom have bought stables and joined 
in the sport. There have been intrigue and secret treaties, a wave 
of reform and a great reaction, riots, hurried flights, banishments 
and executions, rumors of uprisings, comings and goings of lega- 
tion guards, and now, at last, the deluge. 

AN OFFICIAL FOR FORTY YEARS. 

A description of Pekin life that failed to mention Sir Robert 
Hart, the inspector-general of the Chinese customs, would leave out 
the most interesting and unique character in the Chinese capital. 
For forty years he has served the Chinese government, building up 
its customs services and creating its lighthouse and postal systems. 
He is now a Chinese Mandarin of the highest rank and the most 
influential man in the Empire. In his magnificent compound 
he keeps a court far surpassing that of any of the legations, and 
the dances and garden parties held in his spacious grounds are the 
feature of the social life of the capital. He maintains the only 
brass band in the Empire — Chinamen, trained by a foreign leader, 
whose accomplishments are quite creditable, although their early 
efforts added considerably to the gayety of nations. 

" None of the powers has greater interests at stake in China, 
whether existent or prospective, than Great Britain and the United 
States," writes Charles Beresford. "The latest figures I was al 



440 OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 

to obtain in 1898 during my visit to China showed that these two 
powers had over seventy-two per cent, of the whole of the foreign 
trade with China in their hands ; all the other powers combined 
having only twenty-eight per cent, between them, of which Japan 
possesses the largest share. 

" It is perfectly true that, upon examining these figures, there 
seems to be a great disproportion between the sixty-four per cent. 
of trade possessed by Great Britain and the eight per cent, pos- 
sessed by the United States. It must be remembered, however, 
that it was Great Britain who opened up, made possible, and devel- 
oped the foreign trade of the Chinese Empire. For many years 
Great Britain held an almost undisputed commercial position in 
that country. 

Subsequently, other European countries began to compete with 
her ; but the American nation, which is probably about the latest 
of these competitors, has already outdistanced all rivals, and ob- 
tained eight per cent, of the whole trade, as against the twenty- 
eight per cent of all other nations combined (including Japan). 
Viewed in this light, it will be seen that the disproportion between 
the trade of Great Britain and the United States is less real than 
apparent. There are one or two other factors which have to be 
taken into consideration in studying these statistics, which, like all 
figures, are more or less misleading. 

INCREASE IN AMERICAN TRADE. 

" The first point is that not only is a very large proportion of 
American trade carried in British bottoms, but, in addition, a con- 
siderable amount is consigned to the old-established British firms 
in China, and therefore is rightly treated as British commerce by 
the Chinese customs. This trade in American goods is very large, 
I am told ; and while it is rightly classified as British, being British, 
owned, and carried in British ships to Chinese ports, yet its place 
of origin is none the less American. 

" The second point is that this eight per cent, of actual Ameri- 
can trade as against sixty-four per cent, of nominal British trade, 
has been obtained in a comparatively few years, and the propor- 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 441 

tionate increase of trade in trie last two or three years wonld 
therefore be fonnd to be in favor of America. 

" The third and still more important point is that while the 
British volume of trade is still growing, there is no doubt that in 
several directions, notably in drills, jeans, and sheetings, the trade 
of the United States has steadily gone ahead in China, while in 
British trade there has been a decline. The cotton piece goods 
trade as a whole, declined during 1897, but, in the items quoted 
above, there was actually an increase of nearly 500,000 pieces, all 
of American manufacture. 

OUR TRADE WITH CHINA. 

" It is apparent, therefore, that the interest of the United 
States in the foreign trade of China is not only an increasiug one, but 
is also a proportionately greater interest than that of all European 
competitors, with the exception of Great Britain, and this despite 
the fact that most of them had the start of the United States in 
competing with Great Britain for the China market." Wu Ting 
Fang says : 

" According to statistics published by the United States gov- 
ernment, China in 1899 took American goods to the value of 
$14,437,422, of which amount $9,844,565 was paid for cotton goods. 
All the European countries combined bought only $1,484,363 worth 
of American cotton manufactures during the same period. The 
amount of similar purchases made by the Central American States 
was $737,259, by all the South American countries $2,713,967. It 
thus appears that China is the largest buyer of American cotton 
goods. Cotton cloth has a wide range of uses in all parts of the 
Chinese Empire, and it is almost impossible for the supply to equal 
the demand. 

" Up to the year 1898, cotton goods and kerosene, were the 
only articles imported from the United States in large enough 
quantities to have a value of over $1,000,000. According to statis^ 
tics for the }^ear 1899, manufactures of iron and steel have passed 
that mark. This is due to the fact that China has now begun in 
real earnest the work of building railroads. The demand for con- 



442 OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 

struction materials is great. The value of locomotives imported 
during the year 1899 from the United States was $732,212. 

" Besides the articles above mentioned there are many others 
of American origin, which do not figure in the customs returns as 
such. These find their way into China through adjacent countries, 
especially Hong Kong. At least three-fourths of the imports of 
Hong Kong, notably wheat, flour and canned goods, are destined 
for consumption in the Chinese mainland, 

DEMAND FOR AMERICAN KEROSENE. 

" Such is the present condition of trade between the United 
States and China. That trade can be greatly extended. Let the 
products of American farms, mills and workshops once catch the 
Chinese fancy and America need look no further for a market. 
The present popularity of American kerosene illustrates the readi- 
ness of the Chinese to accept any article that fills a long-felt want. 
They have recognized in kerosene a cheap and good illuminant, 
much superior to their own nut-oil, and it has consequently found 
its way into distant and outlying parts of the Empire, where the 
very name of America is unknown. 

" Stores in the interior now send their agents to the treaty ports 
for it. In the same way, foreign-made candles, because cheaper 
than those of home make, are selling easily in China. I would 
suggest that American farmers and manufacturers might find it to 
their advantage to study the wants and habits of the Chinese and 
the conditions of trade in China." 

China has made great progress for the last fifty years, more 
particularly since the allied French and British armies captured 
Pekin and the Taku forts during the war of 1859. In writing on 
this subject James Harrison Wilson states : 

" The most potential influence in this movement has been the 
determination of the Powers to open China to the trade of the 
world, and it is to be noted that in enforcing this determination 
they have never hesitated to invoke all the resources of war as well 
as those of diplomacy. Up to 1834 the English, through the East 
India Company, had a virtual monopoly of the China trade, and 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 443 

the individual merchant, no matter what his nationality, had 
but a poor chance. Trade was at first closely supervised by gov- 
ernment and company agents, but gradually outgrew their 
control. 

" Outside merchants, especially Americans, forced their way into 
it, and this made trouble, which was followed by treaties and trade 
regulations. The English insisted upon having better facilities 
and upon trading where they pleased, freely and without annoying 
restrictions, and especially upon the right to engage in the intro- 
duction and sale of opium. The Opium War which followed, com- 
pelled the Chinese not only to legalize the opium trade, but to limit 
themselves to the collection of an ad valorum duty of only five per 
cent, in silver on all goods imported from foreign countries. 

" During these operations the diplomatic representatives of the 
United States, although always claiming their right under the doc- 
trine of co-operation to share in the concessions made to their col- 
leagues, maintained an attitude of neutrality, or sought by an inde- 
pendent show of friendship to gain some specific advantages for our 
country, while our naval commander looked on with complacency, 
till overcome with the thought that " Blood is thicker than water, 1 ' 
when he set to work to rescue the British sailors, whose boats had 
been sunk by Chinese shot. 

A GREAT COMMERCIAL LEADER. 

" The Americans have been leaders in commerce, and in fair 
and honest dealing with the Chinese. One of the oldest and most 
successful houses ever founded in China was that of Russell & 
Company, which planted agencies in all the chief maritime cities, 
established steamboat lines on the principal rivers, and for nearly 
three-quarters of a century was known throughout the world for its 
enterprise and its widespread commercial transactions. 

" Many other American houses of the highest character and 
scarcely less distinction have been planted in the open cities from 
Canton to Newchwang, until now it may be said that American 
products and manufactured goods are known throughout the 
Empire for their excellent quality, and that the value and extent 



444 OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 

of commerce controlled by Americans are second only to that of 
Great Britain. 

u Americans have exerted extraordinary influence in another 
field and at a time of vital importance to the reigning dynasty and 
its government. The Tai-ping rebellion was started and carried 
forward against the Manchus upon the idea of ' China for the Chi- 
nese.' It was based upon a sort of Mormon Christianity, and 
seemed in a fair way of overrunning the entire country till it was 
met by ' the ever victorious army,' organized and commanded by an 
American sailor named Ward. Operating under the sanction of 
Li Hung Chang, he gathered a force of Chinamen, not exceeding 
five thousand in all, whom he armed with foreign rifles, placed 
under foreign officers, and led in person against the rebels for two 
years of unbroken victory. 

CAUSE OF REBELLION'S FAILURE. 

" Death alone at the head of his command put an end to his 
career. He was succeeded in turn by Burgevine, Forrester, and 
Gordon, two Americans and one Englishman, but neither of them 
changed the organization nor added to its invincible efficiency. 
Gordon, who finally laid down his life for Great Britain at Khar- 
toum, it is true, rendered valuable services ; but it is now generally 
admitted that had it not been for the work of Ward the rebellion 
would have been successful and the Manchu dynasty would have 
been expelled." 

The foreign trade of China is carried on almost entirely 
through the treaty ports, and foreign goods penetrate the interior 
only through Chinese merchants. Russia and Germany are doing 
somewhat better than other nations in selling their goods in the 
interior, as they have numerous agents throughout the Empire for 
the purpose of introducing their goods. 

A writer in one of the Pekin radical papers urging the 
Emperor to seek the assistance of the Marquis Ito in the task of 
regenerating China, asserting that only by a Japanese alliance can 
China take a firm attitude toward foreign powers, says in part : — 

1 The fundamental principles of Chinese policy are isolation 




GREAT WALL OF PEKIN, SHOWING THE WATCH TOWERS ERECTED FOR 
WAR PURPOSES; THESE ARE PLACED 200 FEET APART 




LEGATION STREET, PEKIN, WHERE THE FOREIGN MINISTERS RESIDE; 
FRENCH LEGATION BUILDING IN THE FOREGROUND 









■ • 



CHEFU, CHINA, THE SUMMER WATERING RESORT OF THE FOREIGN 
RESIDENTS OF THE EMPIRE 




CHINESE BOAT SLIDE-BULLOCKS DRAWING A BOAT OVER A DIVIDE BY 
AID OF A PREPARED WET CLAY PATH 



OPENING THE SEALED GATES. 445 

and separation, whilst among Western nations the principles of 
government are the very opposite of these, namely, intercourse and 
union ; principles which serve to bring about the development of 
moral and material resources, while isolation and exclusion lead to 
the very opposite result. To these two principles, intercourse and 
union, the nations of the West are indebted for their greatness and 
civilization. 

"If the Celestial Empire, with its vast natural resources, its 
huge area, its enormous population, should enter into an alliance 
with Japan, borrowing from Japan new methods for the develop- 
ment of China's resources, and for the education of competent 
men, then Japan and China together, in firm union and alliance, 
could easily withstand either Russia or England and assure a gen- 
eral peace. This would secure the integrity of the Chinese 
Emperor's hereditary dominions, and put an end to foreign 
encroachment." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

An Era of New Ideas. 

What Steam has Accomplished — Introduction of the Telephone and Telegraph — Open 
ing of Hitherto Closed Cities — Power of the English Language — Use of Christian 
Hospitals — New Knowledge of Medicine — Improvement of Sanitary Conditions. — 
The New Plow— The Threshing Machine. 

AFTER the opium war of 1840 the Chinaman became some- 
what familiar with modern inventions as they were known to 
the Western world. Steam at that time was just assuming 
its proper place in the economics of labor and progression. The 
Chinaman seeing the first steam vessel or pictures of the first loco- 
motive, or small stationary engines, which were brought to the 
Empire before the locomotive was, at first regarded these inventions 
as toys invented by the white man for his amusement in idle 
hours. He probably would have continued to hold to these ideas and 
to have regarded them as harmless playthings until the time when 
he should make practical use of them himself, if it had not been 
for certain elements in his priesthood and certain political leaders, 
who feared not only the incoming of the foreigner, but Oie possible 
influence of the Christian religion. The priesthood of China, like 
the priesthood of all parts of the world, has nuine'.viis financial 
emoluments. The system of religion constructed /i intricate and 
expensive. Any religion in opposition which proposed to simplify 
and trim the state religion necessarily would (J/.nl a blow to the 
priesthood thriving upon it. 

It became then the duty of the politicians, as well as ot the 
priests, to instill into the minds of their followers not only a feai 
of steam and its instruments, but an opposition to their use. The 
doctrine was promulgated insidiously that steam was user! through 
the agency of the evil one, and that steam engines of any kind 
were simply mechanisms in which were caged devi'/i seeking to 
break forth. As the negro believed this when he first saw the 
flaming firus leap from the funnels of the early Mississippi steam 
446 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 



44' 



boats, it can easily be believed that the Chinaman took stock in 
what was told him. He had already formed his opinion of the 




SENDING PRAYERS TO HEAVEN BY BURNING THEM. 

white man himself. He was a " foreign devil." Hence to call tin 
instruments which he used in his labors " devils " was an eas\ 



448 AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 

matter. When the first rails were laid and the first train of cars 
rolled away from the Pacific coast toward the interior of China, the 
terror which took possession of thousands of the inhabitants is said 
to have been something remarkable. 

They fled to their places of worship and offered prayers and 
incense to the gods. At night they stole forth to place obstructions 
upon the rails and if possible to overthrow the new power. The 
whistle struck new terrors to their hearts ; the escaping steam was 
the cry of the imprisoned evil spirits ; the sparks and light which 
came from the locomotive were to them a glimpse of the eternal fires 
of purgatory. The greatest care and watchfulness was necessary 
on the part of the railroad officials to prevent ruin and destruction 
of their property. Government protection was repeated^ called for 
and many intelligent Chinese leaders who had been educated 
abroad, or who had traveled extensively, did their best to allay the 
fears of the people. 

RAILROAD PROGRESS SLOW. 

But China has an enormous area and her people are so numer- 
ous and their means of communication so few that accurate intelli- 
gence spreads slowly. In the territories lying along the Pei-ho 
river or contiguous, where a few railroad lines of importance have 
been constructed, the natives have become partially accustomed to 
railroad trains and locomotives. But despite all this, it was no dif- 
ficult matter for the Boxers to inspire new horror of the railroads in 
the minds of their followers in the summer of 1900 and to secure 
the destruction of vast quantities of railroad property. Steam, 
though, has taught the intelligent and discriminating Chinaman 
that here is a power which since it does not harm the white man, 
may possibly be used by him without the white man's intervention. 

The intelligent Chinaman is already asking why he should 
not build his own railroads. He has already made intelligent use 
of steam in his arsenals, in his steel and iron manufactories, and in 
various other ways. He has secured the hang of the power and his 
common sense being in many instances greater than his religious 
or political fears, he is ready to take steam as a means — not cf 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 449 

increasing the power of the foreigner within the Empire — bnt of 
developing the strength of the Empire itself. Once let a railroad 
be constructed through the commercial heart of China and have a 
magnitude of operation somewhat comparable, say to that of either 
the Northwestern Railroad, the Santa Fe, the Illinois Central, 
the Burlington or the Lackawanna system, the intelligent China- 
man will accept the lesson and instead of further contesting the 
commercial weapons of the foreigner will endeavor not only to 
make himself master of them, but to improve them. 

TELEPHONE AND TELEGRAPH. 

The telephone and telegraph system in China is rapidly spread- 
ing. All the treaty ports are connected by submarine cable with 
Singapore, Japan, Vladivostok, and the rest of the world. After 
much opposition, a double line of wires was completed towards the 
end of the year 1881 by a British company between Pekin and 
Shanghai, and other projects are under consideration. 

The old tuentai, or " atmospheric " telegraphs, have already 
fallen into abe}^ance. They consisted simply of cone-shaped towers 
resting on square piles of masonry, on which bonfires were kindled 
and the signals thus rapidly transmitted to great distances. But 
such rude contrivances could scarcely do more than warn the 
government of outbreaks and other troubles in the remote provinces. 
The telephone is not so extensively known in China as the tele- 
graph now is, it being employed mostly by foreign merchants in 
the treaty ports. 

Telegraph lines connect Pekin with the principal towns of 
China and by the Trans-Siberian telegraph lines with Europe. 
From towns on the border of Manchuria wires run to Pekin ; also 
from Port Arthur, Seoul and Chemulpo. Canton and the principal 
cities on the seaboard connect with the capital via Shanghai and 
Chifu. From the coast one line penetrates from Canton to Yun- 
nanfu, the capital of the province of Yunnan, and another extends 
up the Yang-tze-kiang valley to the border of Tibet. 

The telegraph system is being improved each year. At the 

request of the people inland, the foreign legations have asked the 
29 



450 AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 

authorities to extend the lines to the prefectural cities of Taian and 
Tchow, and the telegraph men have commenced the work. The 
charges for telegrams are curiously arranged, the rate for Chinese 
words being one-half of those for English ; yet the Chinese is 
translated into English numerals, and thus sent, a charge of one 
cent per word being demanded for putting the numerals back into 
Chinese at the. receiving office. 

In all China there are ninety-seven postoffices. Inland service 
has been inaugurated, but the delivery of correspondence to and 
from the interior has become to a great extent guesswork. So 
badly is the system managed that the Chinese, who are never in a 
hurry, are complaining. 

A foreign resident in China writes : 

" Not only do the foreigners complain of the slowness of the 
service, but special inquiry among the business houses of this city 
(Weihsien) reveals the reason why the natives do not patronize the 
new service. They say it is ' t'ai man ' (too slow) . It is quite a 
joke on foreign enterprise when such comments are made by the 
notoriously slow Chinese upon the mail schedule designed by for- 
eigners as an improvement on the old way." 

POSTAL RATES. 

The latest rules governing postal rates, dated Pekin, August 
i, 1899, sa Y s : 

" Domestic (China) mail sent to inland offices (that is, offices 
not in the treaty port) pays only domestic postage, except parcels, 
which pay double postage. International mail (under which comes 
the United States mail) when sent to the interior overland (that 
is, to non-treaty post-offices) pays in addition to the United 
States postage, domestic postage, except letters and postal cards. 
This applies to all articles contained in the mails (except letters 
and post cards) intended for or from the United States." 

Thus an American inland pays on every book, paper or pack- 
age that is fully prepaid in the United States, on its delivery to 
him at the interior office, one cent for every four ounces on news- 
papers, two cents on each two ounces or less on printed matter, two 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 451 

cents per two ounces (five cents minimum charge) on commercial 
papers and twenty cents per pound on parcels. 

The residence of so many Chinese abroad tends quite as much 
as the presence of foreigners in China to bring about the inevitable 
renovation of the land. Careful observers, the Chinese preserve in 
their memory all the lessons taught them by the hard struggle for 
existence. They thus learn to adapt themselves to the new con- 
ditions, modifying their methods and adopting foreign arts, not with 
the youthful enthusiasm of the Japanese, but with determination 
and indomitable perseverance. Proud of their ancient culture, and 
fully conscious of the superiority of some of their processes, they 
are never tempted blindly to accept foreign ideas and fashions. 

ADAPT THEMSELVES TO NEW CONDITIONS. 

Unlike the Japanese they refuse to conform in dress to the 
" foreign devils," but are fully alive to the advantages to be derived 
from Western inventions. Apart from the Mandarins, who have 
privileges to safeguard, and who are consequently wedded to the 
old ways, the bulk of the people perfectly understand how much 
they have to learn from the foreigners. 

Patients crowd the English and French hospitals in Tien-Tsin, 
Shanghai, Amoy and other places, and the fanciful native pharma- 
copoeia, in which magic played such a large part, is thus being 
gradually assimilated to that of the West. Vaccination has already 
replaced the dangerous method of inoculation by the nostrils ; and 
enlightened practitioners, with a knowledge of anatomy, physiology, 
and hygienics, begin to make their appearance here and there amid 
the countless tribe of quacks and charlatans. 

Elisee Recluse writes : 

" To speak, as many do, of the immobilit}^ of the Chinese Em- 
pire is altogether unjust, for nowhere else have more revolutions 
been accomplished, or more varied systems of government been 
essayed. * To improve, renew yourself daily,' said one of the 
ancient sages quoted by Confucius. But it is not difficult to under- 
stand why great changes are slower in China than elsewhere. The 
people have the consciousness of their ancient culture, and they 



452 AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 

may have well believed for centuries that they were the only civi- 
lized nation, surrounded as they were either by barbarians or by 
populations whose teachers they had been. 

" Suddenly from beyond the seas and over the plateaus and 
deserts they beheld other nations advancing, who with a more recent 
history outstrip them in knowledge and industry. The world be- 
comes enlarged and peopled around them, and those outer spaces, 
to which they attached such little importance, are discovered to be 
ten times larger and twice as populous as China itself. 

" Their assumed superiority thus disappears forever. As- 
suredly such a proud people could not without bitterness contem- 
plate the relative diminution of their importance in the world, and 
it must have cost them manj' a pang to have to learn new lessons 
of wisdom in the school of the stranger. Nevertheless these lessons 
the} 7 are prepared to learn, without, however, losing their self- 
respect. The} 7 study the European sciences and industries, not as 
pupils, but rather as rivals anxious to turn their opponents' re- 
sources against themselves." 

REFORMS NEEDED. 

Taotai Lew, first secretary of the Chinese Embassy it: Lon- 
don, makes the following statement on reforms needed in China : 

" All the traveled, better educated Chinese are heart and soul 
in sympathy with reform. Of course, they are only a small sec- 
tion of the whole population, but they are drawn from the best 
class of scholars and thinkers. At their head is the Emperor 
himself — a truly wonderful man, the finest ruler China ever had 
the most advanced, the most progressive and the most daring. 
The Emperor is an Eastern Kaiser Wilhelm II., full of progress- 
ive ideas, anxious to sacrifice all for the good and advancement of 
his country, a thoroughly live man, with just the one fault that 
brought about his downfall, that he is apt to go too quickly. 

He tried to make too drastic and too sudden changes. But they 
were all good, all in the right direction, all such as the powers had 
been saying they desired but dared not hope for. Yet when Li 
Hung Chang asked their assistance, their active support, to pre- 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 453 

vent the Emperor's deposition (which we all knew was being 
plotted by a power which we w 7 ere not strong enough to cope with 
alone) asked the Powers to give him some earnest of their loudly 
expressed approval, he was met with long faces and non possums. 
The inevitable happened, and the present trouble is only one out 
of the many consequences. 

" The cause of reform in China has been put back a century 
by the weakness of the Powers at the right moment, and will be 
put back still further if they do not pursue the right course, now 
that they are actually in Pekin, and have it in their hands practi- 
cally to decide what the future of China is to be. To carry out any 
of the suggested crusades of revenge with blood and with fire would 
increase the resentment against Western people. Punishment 
must, of course, be exacted, but on the responsible guilty. In 
doing this the powers would be paving the way to the most neces- 
sary of the reforms I would suggest. These reforms are : 

WHAT THE POWERS MUST DO. 

" i. The restoration of the Emperor to the throne, from which 
they should never have permitted his deposition . 

" 2. Then they should give their active support to him in 
reorganizing the Privy Council. This body, which must not be 
confused with the Tsung Li Yamen, or Foreign Office, is the most 
powerful body in China. It corresponds more closely to the Brit- 
ish Cabinet than to any other part of the political machinery of 
this conntry, but with the important difference that it governs 
directly instead of through the double check of the representatives 
of the people and of a chamber of hereditary legislators. 

It is, in fact, the Cabinet, with the powers of both houses of 
Parliament, and is responsible for all the edicts which takes the 
place of your statutes. At present it consist of Mandarins, some 
of them Chinese and some of the Manchn relatives of the present 
dynasty In China no man under sixty years of age is supposed 
to have reached his prime, and no member of this Privy Council is 
under this age, many of them being seventy or even eighty. 
Naturally, these are the most retrograde, reactionary bars to pro- 



454 AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 

gress in the whole constitution. They must give place to younger 
men, to the well educated, traveled, intelligent men whom contact 
with the Western world has brought abreast of the times. There 
is no lack of them, but at present they are looked on with suspi- 
cion, as revolutionary, unpatriotic and traitorous. 

DISPENSE WITH THE SALE OF HONORS. 

" 3. The sale of honors and dignities must be abolished, and 
here again the Powers would have to guarantee their assistance to 
the Emperor, for this reform would strike at the root of more evils 
than are at first apparent, and would be by no means an easy one 
to carry out. 

" 4. The whole educational system of the country would have 
to be remodeled on Western lines. It is obvious that the most 
important matter is to train up a generation which will be anxious 
for and not opposed to progress. The only education at present 
known is confined to a restricted class of Mandarins and of ( schol- 
ars ' — the sole study is l the classics,' ' ethical philosophy of a 
purely speculative and useless character,' the early history of their 
own country, and generally, subjects which, while they may be a 
splendid training for the mind, have in themselves no practical 
use. Instead of this is wanted a sound, popular, educational sys- 
tem on utilitarian lines. 

"5. The Pekin Gazette, the oldest daily paper in the world — 
established upwards of 1,000 years ago — is an official publication. 
At present it contains nothing but the imperial edicts, declarations, 
proclamations, and summaries of the official news of the various 
provincial envoys. In order to keep the officials in touch with the 
progress of the world, it must have a thoroughly reliable news sup- 
plement added, giving all the latest information and cables from 
the capitals of the world. 

" 6. The establishment of a properly organized police force on 
Western lines is another urgently needed reform. There is now 
nothing of the sort in China, and the consequence is that not only 
is there no real security of life and property beyond what each 
individual provides for himself, but, further, the most trivial out- 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 455 

break of discontent may in an amazingly short time grow to the 
dimensions of the present uprising. 

" 7. Last but not least comes municipal reform. There is now 
absolutely no municipal authority, with the consequence that the 
whole conditions of even the largest towns are beyond all words 
depraving and disgusting — the streets are but main sewers through 
which the teeming populations pick their way on stepping stones 
to their wretched mud hovels, or occasionally sink and drown in 
some unsuspected hole on the way. The European treaty ports 
form notable examples of the transformation that may be worked 
by the establishment of municipal government. 

" These seven points, however, by no means exhaust the list 
of needed reforms. They are merely those to which the attention 
of the Powers should be first directed." 

The railroads have had the greatest influence in opening the 
interior of China and cities hitherto closed. Where the railroad is 
unknown inland trade is carried on either by coolies or by water. 
It was not until 1898, however, that the Chinese government, for 
the first time in the history of the Empire, made provision for 
inland steam navigation. By this act, native or foreign owned 
steamers are permitted to ply between a treaty port and places on 
the coasts or rivers to be designated by the superintendent of cus- 
toms in each province. 

OPPOSITION TO STEAM NAVIGATION, 

Vessels availing themselves of this privilege, can ply only on 
w r aters lying between treaty ports, and are not permitted to go to 
or pass another treaty port, nor can they land passengers or ship 
cargo at intermediate places, except where customs offices are 
established. Before 1898, native steam launches were allowed to 
ply on the rivers, but could not go outside, nor were they allowed 
to carry freight. 

The new privileges do not always meet with favor on the part 
of the provincial officials, and many restrictions tending to cripple 
the new enterprises have been introduced. This may be accounted 
for, in part, by the fact that the receipts on likin duties, on goods 



456 AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 

going overland, come into the hands of the provincial officials and 
their income would be greatly reduced by the introduction of steam 
navigation on local waters. Goods which now go overland have to 
pass many likin stations and are required to pay a tax at each 
station until the final destination is reached. The same goods 
going by steam launch pay only one duty at the end of the route 
and thus escape enormous squeezes. 

The Dutch consul at Wuchow, writes concerning this busi- 
ness as follows : 

" The Chinese merchant to get his goods from Fatshan to 
Nanning pays two full duties and a half, as well as freight from 
Sam sui to Hong Kong and back, and all this is cheaper than if he 
carried them past the native custom house and likin stations. This 
is an everyday occurrence. To throw open to steam the inland 
waters of China, hampered by restrictions which practically keep 
them closed without drastic revision of the taxation of domestic 
trade, is absolutely worthless." 

FOREIGNERS HELD BACK. 

Owing to the hindrances above mentioned and others imposed 
by officials, the efforts made by foreigners and natives at some ports 
to establish steamship lines have been unsuccessful and for the 
most part abandoned, at least for the present. One of the latest 
efforts was made by a wealthy Chinese compradore of a foreign 
establishment, who attempted to establish a line between Fuchau 
and the port of San tu, a few miles to the north on the coast. 

The opposition of the carriers or burden-bearing coolies, who 
hitherto have had a monopoly of the business of carrying teas and 
other products of that region overland on their shoulders, was such 
that no freight could be obtained back to Fuchau, and the scheme 
was an utter failure. 

F. E. Taylor, statistical secretary of the Chinese imperial 
maritime customs, says : 

" The development of industrial enterprises, the extension of 
railways and the exploitation of the mineral resources of the coun- 
try are likely to have important effects upon trade in the future. 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 457 

As regards the first, steady progress is observable, and every thing 
points to a prosperous future which will further develop the foreign 
trade. 

Twelve steamers are being built in Europe for the carrying 
trade of the Yang-tze-kiang. Two new lines of steamers will be 
operated by German firms between Hankow and Shanghai, and a 
line by the Japanese in addition to the one they already have. The 
Germans will also put on two 17-knot boats to run from Hankow 
to Chungking. No steamer has ever made the trip from Ichang to 
Chungking through the gorges, as the current is very strong and 
the rapids are shallow during low water. Two of the German 
boats are being constructed for these special exigencies of naviga- 
tion. If they succeed, it will open a large field for trade. Thou- 
sands of junks are engaged in this business, making three or four 
trips a year, and employing from 20 to 100 trackers per junk to 
tow them upstream ; and the trip of 460 miles takes from thirty to 
thirty-five days. 

WU TING FANG ON RAILROADS 

Minister Wu Ting Fang at Washington says in his interest- 
ing article in the North American Review : 

" Of all public works China has the most pressing need of rail- 
roads. Only ten years ago it would have been difficult to convince 
one man in ten of the immediate necessity for the introduction of 
railroads into all the provinces of the Empire. To-day at least 
nine out of every ten believe that railroads ought to be built as fast 
as possible. This complete change of public opinion within so 
short a time, shows perhaps better than anything else how fast 
China is getting into the swing of the world's movement. 

" The building of railroads in China does not partake of the 
speculative character which attended the building of some of the 
American roads. There are no wild regions to be opened for set- 
tlement, no new towns to be built along the route. Here is a case 
of the railroad following the population and not that of the popu- 
lation following the railroad. A road built through populous cities 
and famous marts has not long to wait for traffic. It would pay 



458 



AN ERA OF NEW IDEAS. 



from the beginning. The era of railroad building in China may 
be said to have just dawned. Besides railroads there are other pub- 
lic works which China must undertake sooner or later. Among 
them are river and harbor improvements, city water supplies, street 
lighting and street railways." 

An innovation which seems to have been borrowed from India 
was suggested by famines in the provinces of Hupeh, Shansi and 
Shantung. The Emperor discovered that the system of distribu- 
tion of free rations among the starving population was not a suc- 
cess. He proposed to adopt the British Indian expedient of relief- 
works, and further intended to improve the occasion by employing 
men at these works in the various new industries which he sought 
to introduce throughout the provinces. This included the building 
of railroads, the establishment of agricultural machinery — the 
threshing machine and the manufacture of the steel plow, the 
extension of irrigation, the introduction of new manufactures and 
the general improvement of sanitary conditions. 

But the Empress Dowager put an end to all the efforts of the 
Emperor to introduce reforms by deposing him. She cannot per- 
manently stay these reforms, however, for China is on the verge of 
an era of new ideas. The English language has already attained 
an importance in the Empire, through the influence of foreigners, 
and more particularly the Chinese educated abroad. China can no 
longer resist the influence of Western thought ; she must recog- 
nize the advantages of Western methods. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

England and Russia. 

Their Relation to China — Attitude of the Lion — Ambition of the Bear — The Slav Facing 
the Anglo — Kelt, the Mongolian Between — Spheres of Influence — The Open Door 
— The Concessions Granted — Bribery and Corruption— Beresford's Visit to China — 
The Port Arthur District — The Shanghai Incident. 

RUSSIA was intimately acquainted with the Chinese character 
long before England as a government or nation had re- 
garded the Flowery Kingdom as worthy of study. Some- 
how or other, in the dreams of power of Russian prime ministers 
and Russian Emperors, their eyes have not only been turned 
toward the waters of the Bosphorus, but toward the sea-coast line 
of the Pacific Ocean. To successfully reach that line and its ports 
it has always been understood in Russian diplomatic circles that 
the Czar must sooner or later conquer a considerable portion of 
China or establish lasting and reciprocal trade relations with the 
Empire. 

Russia, at the opening of this century, and just after the assas- 
sination of the Emperor Paul, gave great heed to the warnings of her 
wise men that she could not hope to hold her position as a world-power 
without great sea ports. These could be partially acquired by the 
conquering of Turkey and the gaining of an entrance to the Medi- 
terranean sea, but that route to maritime power did not seem any 
easier then than now. A second course was to join with England, 
then gaining control of India, and battle for the joint supremacy 
of that land. This did not appear inviting, although the Hindus 
had always related a legend to the effect that when India was 
finally conquered the dominant race would come from the north 
and not from the west as England did. The third course was to 
extend the boundaries of Siberia until they should border those of 
China, and then, by diplomacy and treaty, purchase, or even by 
war, secure equal rights with China on the Pacific coast. 

469 



460 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

The Russian, above all things, is patient. He is a mixture 
of Oriental and mid- Asia races. He has within him many of the 
race attributes of the Chinaman. He has found it a matter of 
ease to assimilate with the savage or semi-savage hordes of central 
Asia. He understands their governmental tactics. He knows 
their love of money, ease and barbaric splendor. He has tested 
their fighting qualities with his own sword. He bears them far 
more respect than any other nationality of the western world and 
in return has received from them more evidences of confidence than 
have been given to any other race. So the Russian, all of a hun- 
dred years ago, slowly, secretly, started for the Pacific coast by way 
of the cold routes of Siberia. In doing so he discovered that 
Siberia was by no means the barren waste it had been supposed to be. 

SIBERIA NOT A WASTE. 

He found that within its wilds were thousands of acres of 
land suitable for settlement and cultivation. He opened Siberia 
while he was pushing himself on toward the northern borders of 
China. England in the meantime was engaged not only in a 
second war with the United States but in clashes with France, 
troubles with her colonies, and many a struggle to prevent any 
Russian advances in the direction of Constantinople. Further- 
more, while the English are a bull dog race when once started, 
almost irresistible in their force, they have never come into as close 
blood-touch with the Oriental race as the Russian. It was only 
after decades of useless sacrifice that the English fully understood 
how to make India a dependency, while yet on the surface of 
things permitting India to govern herself It is true that this has 
not led to the complete subjugation of India, and that England 
may yet lose that vast land. 

But in that quarter of the world she has mastered one 
or two lessons which the Russian knew before he ever left St. 
Petersburg for the land of the Mandarins. It is unnecessary 
to describe the slow advancement of Russia through Asiatic 
Siberia to the Chinese borders. She crept on year by year, 
never losing sight of her purpose, and it is less than twenty years 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 461 

since other powers awoke to the fact that Russia had an entrench- 
ment in China which they did not possess, and from which she 
could never be dislodged save by bloody and costly war. England 
was the first to awake to this situation, and to realize that if China 
was not to be given up to Russian influence, she must speedily, by 
diplomacy or force of arms, gain some control over the Empire her- 
self. In this manner Russia and England were brought face to 
face in the Orient with the natural sympathies of China proper 
inclined toward the Slav. The educated Chinaman cannot forget 
that to England China owes the dangerous opium trade, and that 
it was England which brought upon China the opium war of 1840. 

RUSSIA'S GREAT GAIN. 

In 1895 Russia secured a secret treaty with China which gave 
to the former country valuable concessions. It gave Russia the 
right to introduce troops into Manchuria, to fortify Port Arthur 
and other places, even to raise and drill Chinese levies. The Chi- 
nese were obligated not to cede strategical points to any power by 
which Russia might be threatened, and Russia engaged to defend 
China against the land-grabbing schemes of other nations. Still 
later Li Hung Chang signed a lease of Port Arthur to Russia 
which closed that place to all but Russian and Chinese vessels. 

The general interest which centers upon China in its relations 
to the civilized Powers invests all literature bearing upon the sub- 
ject with a corresponding value. Especially is this so in the case 
of a volume which contains so much information in regard to the 
parts of China upon which the eyes of the world are fixed, and in 
which the relations and ultimate aims of Russia as respects the 
" Flowery Kingdom " are so thorougly demonstrated. 

The author, Mr. Archibald R. Colquohoun, has made many 
journeys in China during the last twenty years. In 1898-90 he 
made the journey from European Russia by rail to the tempo- 
rary terminus of the transcontinental railroad, now under con- 
struction at Lake Baikai, 3,700 miles from St. Petersburg. Thence 
to Vladivostock, on the Pacific, the distance by the railroad under 
construction is 1,840 miles, making the total length of the road 






462 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

from the Czar's capital to its terminus on the Pacific, about fifty- 
five hundred miles. 

Of this prior to 1891, when the transcontinental extension 
was decreed, the road was in operation from St. Petersburg via. 
Moscow to Chebialinsk, on the eastern slopes of the Ural mountains, 
a distance of about 1,500 miles, making the amount of new road 
to be constructed 4,000 miles. As the road has for nearly two 
years been in operation to Irkutsk, more than half way, and is 
being constructed rapidly from both directions, its final completion 
is expected within two years. At the same time a railroad is under 
construction from Vladivostock to Port Arthur, nearly 600 miles 
to the south, which will be finished within the same period. 

The vastness of this undertaking as indicated by the immense 
force at work upon it, the great distance the material has to be 
transported, and the topographical difficulties, are well set forth in 
the interesting narrative of the author. Traversing a region unin- 
habited for the greater part of the route, except by nomadic tribes 
of Tartars, Mongolians and other similar people, it is a scheme 
which has required for its consummation the absolute power and 
endless resources of a government like Russia, which looks to 
its completion for the realization of its long-cherished scheme of 
Asiatic domination. 

A DARING POLICY. 

Concurrently with the work of railroad construction is being 
carried on a systematic colonization of the territory along the route 
with Russians, the building of cities, the establishment of perma- 
nent military posts and the development of agriculture and manu- 
factures. 

The result as to the future destiny of Europe and Asia will be 
— except on a larger scale — similar to that wrought by the building 
of the Pacific railroad upon the United States, which has given to 
this country practical control of the Pacific coast from Behring 
Straits to the Gulf of California. By this stroke of daring policy, 
together with the acquisition of Manchuria, Russia will have on 
her side of the Pacific exclusive possession of the coast, from the 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 46H 

North Pole to Port Arthur, the Gulf of Peichili, commanding 
entrance to same, and to the whole of Northern China by sea as 
well as by land. 

The political effect of this upon her relations with the rival 
Powers of Europe, which for two centuries have singly or in con- 
cert successfully heretofore prevented her from acquiring naval 
stations in latitudes not blocked with ice can scarcely be estimated, 
and henceforth Russia bids fair to be as powerful from a naval 
standpoint as she has been in the extent of her territory and 

population. 

PRAISES RUSSIA'S FORESIGHT. 

The author, although a loyal Englishman, is very profuse in 
lauding the statemanship which has devised such a great move 
upon the political chessboard, and the energy which has pressed so 
rapidly toward successful execution. He regards it as a greater 
achievement in many respects than the building of the American 
Pacific railroad, as it is undoubtedly in point of magnitude in miles. 
But other things necessary for a just comparison are to be con- 
sidered. 

In the first place, it is a government undertaking, while ours 
had merely the encouragement of the government. In the second, 
ours was built when railroad construction was still comparatively 
a new art and before the age of steel and dynamite. Now, the 
physicial difficulties are less, there being stretches of hundreds of 
miles where scarcely any grading is necessary, with no maximun 
altitude to be overcome above 3,000 feet, while we had the long 
extent of the Rocky Mountains and its outliers to traverse and a 
maximum altitude of over 6,000 feet to surmount. 

Then he discloses another feature which detracts from the 
favorable comparison. As with all governmental work, there has 
been waste attended with waste, and defects of construction which 
will require reconstruction before the road can be called a first-class 
thoroughfare. The weight of the rail is but fifty-four pounds to the 
yard, and this will have to be replaced with others of seventy or 
ninety pounds to adapt it to modern equipmeut and effective 
capacity. 



464 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

Then the rails have been placed in notches merely in the ties, 
which will require an entire replacement of ties, with proper fix- 
tures, while the road is practically without ballast and will require, 
in effect, the construction of a new roadbed. So that while the 
work as it now stands has been done in relatively a shorter period, 
by the time it shall have been improved as proposed, and thoroughly 
equipped with steel bridges and tressles instead of its wooden ones, 
and the mammoth engines and first-class freight and passenger 
cars, the difference in its favor as to time will disappear, while the 
cost will be proportionately in excess. 

That Russia has shown long foresight in projecting this great 
undertaking, and equal diplomacy in acquiring territory for its 
Eastern extension and for favorable terminals in temperate lati- 
tudes upon the Pacific, the author proves very clearly at the same 
time that he bewails the supineness and lack of statesmanship on 
the part of Great Britain in permitting such a rival to overreach 
her in the race for supremacy in the Far East. 

GAIN FOR THE SLAV. 

The great coup de main which he points out, am 1 wk ; di time 
is proving to be correct, was the acquisition by Russia of Manchu- 
ria and Port. Arthur. Long after the road had progressed in its 
construction Russia apparently was looking only to Vladivostock, 
an ice-obstructed harbor, which had long proved valueless as a 
naval station, as her most available terminal on the Pacific. But 
secretly she was planning for a right of way upon a lower parallel 
through the Chinese province of Manchuria and to a naval harbor 
in an open sea. 

The war between China and Japan and the stress of the former 
afforded an opportunity. In the hour of her greatest distress the 
Czar came to the aid of the Empress Dowager to check the ambi- 
tious purposes of Japan, and in concert with her fast ally, France, 
brought about peace without undue humiliation. For this act of 
friendship he received without the cost of a ruble the absolute ces- 
sion of Manchuria with the peninsula of Liao Tung, upon the 
point of which sits Port Arthur as a defiance to all rivals. 






ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 465 

The value of this acquisition can be best estimated when it is 
known that it comprises three hundred and sixty-three thousand 
square miles, being a greater area than the original thirteen Amer- 
ican States, with a population of 20,000,000 ; that it has valuable 
agricultural capacity ; that it comes down to the Chinese wall but 
a short distance from Pekin, and that it gives to Russia a southern 
extension of its Pacific coast of six hundred miles. 

By the light of this disclosure what is the use of talking of the 
partition of China ? As far as Russia is concerned, it has already 
been dismembered in respect to Manchuria, and with such relations 
as this deed of gift would imply between the parties of the first 
part one of two things would seem certain — either that Russia will 
stand toward China as its friend and protector, or that it can annex 
any portion or all of China's territory at will. 

THE PARTITION OF CHINA. 

In fact, the author in a spirit of humiliated national pride in 
effect makes the same confession as that implied by that primitive 
American patriot in regard to our policy of expansion when he 
expressively said " it already done expanded." With evident 
understanding of the situation, precedent and present, he says 
Russia as the " future mistress of the world " will hold China 
intact or partition it as she sees fit, possibly giving France a slice, 
while if a break-up does occur he predicts that England will get 
nothing, and may be the first excluded from trade in the Celestial 
Empire. In contemplating the extreme fate of China he is not 
filled with regret or pity as to her, but disappointment and chagrin 
as to England. 

His comments remind one of the boy who, when his Sunday- 
school teacher showed him a picture of Daniel in the lion's den, 
burst into tears. Thinking that he was moved by pity for the- 
apparent fate of Daniel, he comforted him by telling him that God 
would not let the lions hurt Daniel. " I wasn't crying about that," 
whimpered the boy. " Well, what are you crying about?" said the 
teacher. " Why, about that little lion ; he ain't going to get any 
of Daniel." 
30 



466 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

And so Air. Colquohoun, Having no faitli in any security in 
China against her dismemberment is moved to piteous bewailment 
because England is not going to get her share. 

A CONSPIRACY SUSPECTED. 

There are men in England who believe that the Chinese situ- 
ation is a part of a gigantic conspiracy. It is believed in England 
tiiat a v— 11 laid plan of Russia and her diplomatists is rapidly 
approauning fruition, and that the preservation of the vital interests 
of the Anglo-Saxon race depends on a combination of Anglo-Saxon 
armaments in their common defense. 

An English diplomat says : " The violent changes now threat- 
ening the old peaceful commercial era in China have culminated in 
the desperate horror of Pekin. Shudder as England may at the 
hideousness of the incident itself, we must nevertheless pull our- 
selves together and look for the meaning lying beneath a condition 
of things which has with so much suddenness inserted this terrible 
page in Chinese history. 

" The tenor of my remarks is based upon the opinions of three 
continental diplomatists, men whose business it has long been to 
search beneath the merely ostensible for the true motives of poli- 
tical action. These opinions are backed by that of one of the old- 
est and best known English merchants in China, whose great com- 
mercial interests in that country for a great number of years have 
compelled him and others to watch with much earnestness the rival 
policies at work in that part of the world. 

" Some dozen years since a well-known foreign writer in a 
prophetical analysis of political combinations which were likely to 
dominate the world in the not distant future, spoke of one possibil- 
ity, which he declared was never lost sight of in the calculations of 
European statesmen. This was the likelihood of an attempt being 
made to weld into one homogeneous whole the widespread but rap- 
idly developing units which were known by the name of British 
Empire. 

" As long as British statesmanship had not emerged from a 
state of apathy with regard to the bond which seemed but slightly 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 467 

to connect these colonies with the mother country, continental 
apprehension was supernous. But indications have not been want- 
ing that this alarming concentration was in the air and with this 
in view it had become an accepted axiom of continental statesman- 
ship that if Great Britain were allowed another thirty years of 
peaceful progressive development she would by that time have 
grown, by this process of unification, so overwhelmingly strong as 
to be, for the future, practically unassailable. A blow, he added, 
would be struck at her before that time. 

" But apprehensive as were those most nearly concerned of the 
danger to certain of their ambitions if Great Britain were allowed 
time to effect this concentration in advance, being but mortal, they 
were unable to foresee the phenomenal acceleration of her move 
towards the confederation by the sudden appearance upon the scene 
of two strong men — Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Milner. 
These two achieved a general surprise by the pace which, in spite 
of all opposition, they have got out of that old slow coach, British 
policy, whose wheel they have been sending around at a wholly 
abnormal rate. 

DANGER OF ENGLAND. 

*' Their resolute determination to bring all questions with the 
rapidly arming republics of South Africa to a definite issue without 
more delay has, declared a well known Austrian diplomatist, been 
a severe blow at the success of a deep-laid conspiracy against Great 
Britain, which reckoned, with good reason, upon the well-timed 
onslaught of the Boer power as a valuable asset when the last vic- 
tory of diplomacy had been achieved and the hour for more open 
pressure upon Great Britain had struck. 

" The war has forced two highly important facts upon the 
consideration of our enemies. The South African asset has been 
destroyed. The Boer was the only power, be it noticed, that was 
unassailable by Britain's naval array, and its vast importance to 
the anti-British confederation may be easily gauged by the effort it 
has cost her. But the war has also revealed what is much more 
serious, that the military federation of the British Empire is to all 



408 FNGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

intents and purposes not far from becoming an accomplished fact. 
That is to say, that what the French writer twelve years ago de- 
scribed as the haunting dread of Britain's continental opponents 
has suddenly become an imminent possibility. Unless their ambi- 
tions were to be sacrificed altogether, something had to be done, 
and that without delay. 

" If the earth had been partitioned between purely commercial 
races it is tolorably certain that, except where civilization clashed 
with savagery and barbarism, the map of the world might long 
continue with but few material alterations. However, for good or 
for evil, there has been planted in our midst a monstrous system 
of aggression, whose openly-avowed object is universal domination 
and whose restless march towards this goal over every opposing 
interest is a ceaseless menace to the peace of the world. The one 
cry which has always been able to unite every jarring element in 
the domestic policy of Russia has been that of 4 Russia Mistress of 
the World ! ' 

UNSCRUPULOUS ENERGY. 

" With such persistent and unscrupulous energy has she pur- 
sued her way, that to-day she is able to look around upon the tri- 
umphant result of a policy which has practically placed her in the 
proud position of dictator on the continent wheresoever her inter- 
ests are involved. For, by directing'the policy of France, she holds 
Germany, however unwillingly, in a vise, so that even her high- 
spirited Emperor is compelled to proclaim — the triple alliance being 
no longer more than a rusty weapon — that the keynote of German 
policy is a ' good understanding with Russia.' 

" But altogether Russia reserves her most engaging smiles for 
those whose policy she thus holds in leash, she affects no disguise 
in another direction. I well recollect a prominent Russian diplo- 
mat saying not long since : ' We entertain no doubt that the future 
master of the world will be either the Slav or the Anglo-Saxon. 
We mean it to be the Slav.' Convinced all along of the inevitable- 
ness of the struggle, Russia has never ceased to watch the signs of 
the times, and has lost no opportunity of ulterior advantage. 



ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 469 

PLOTTED AGAINST AMERICA. 

"True, she has not always succeeded. She failed when she 
sought to organize by means of her satellites an effective opposition 
to the expansion of America at the expense of Spain. And she 
failed once more when she saw England hurrying on matters in 
South Africa ere she herself was able to profit by them. The effort 
was nevertheless determined and nothing but the desperate neces- 
sity of the case impelled Count Mouravieff to disregard the obvious 
difficulties of the situation when, as many will hear for the first 
time, in the early stages of the South African affair, he embarked 
on that unwise mission to Madrid and Paris, only to meet a rebuff 
at the hands of his own proteges, whose exhibition had for the 
moment postponed all thoughts of a Fashoda revanche. 

"Consequently, although he won Spain to his purpose — on 
condition that the coalition was to be overwhelming, he was obliged 
to return to St. Petersburg without attempting to convince the 
Kaiser that his interests la\ in meeting Russia's views on the 
subject. 

" These two attempts also gave prominence to another men- 
acing fact in the disposition evinced by both great divisions of the 
Anglo- Saxon race to come to the support of the other. Great 
Britain had intimated in no uncertain fashion that an attempt 
forcibly to coerce America would bring her into the field against it. 

" There was no alternative for Russia but to hasten her schemes 
in China, which she would have been willing to postpone until the 
completion of her great railway in 1902 or 1903. If she waited 
now Great Britain would have freed herself from the South African 
and America from the Philippine entanglement, while indications 
were ripe that other nations were hoping to extend their interests 
in moribund China. She was earnestly desirous to attain her 
object without fighting, and the circumstances would not long 
remain so favorable. All she needed was a decent excuse for the 
military occupation of Pekin, and for this she at once played her 
cards desperately. 

"By a lavish expenditure of secret service money she had 



470 ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 

already suborned to her interests most of the Chinese of position 
at the capital. The Empress Dowager herself pawned her influ- 
ence for what she imagined to be Russian support; and this had 
become so recognized a fact that the Chinese openly declared at 
the beginning of the outbreak that Russia w r ould help the 
Empress. As for Li Hung Chang, he long since sold his country 
for Russian gold, and possibly, it is shrewdly suspected, for the 
reversion of the Manchu throne under the convenient aegis of his 
protector. 

" In due time came the Boxer outbreak, which was secretly fos- 
tered, as is well known, from Pekin until the movement has reached 
dimensions which may not unlikely have overwhelmed some of its 
more immediate agents. But neither this contingency nor the 
extent and virulence of the outbreak have caused Russia a 
moment's apprehension for the success ,of her plot. It was too 
well laid. 

" I give it as the deliberate opinion of a foreign politician, 
who knows what he is talking about, that had her interests coin- 
cided with the rescue of the helpless Europeans at Pekin and the 
early suppression of the Boxer movement, Russia had ample 
troops and means at hand for the purpose. But the status quo 
would not then have been sufficiently disturbed, and only on the 
complete ruin of the status quo and the further integrity of China 
does Russia hope to establish her supremacy. So what were the 
lives of a few pitiful units — men women and children — compared 
with the vastness of Russian ambition ? What matter the pro- 
longation of anarch} 7 and the destruction of trade and trade influ- 
ence which was chiefly that of her greatest rival ? 

RUSSIA'S POSSIBLE MISTAKE. 

"Some have thought Russia erred in allowing the question to 
become an international one. Moreover, her report of the invasion 
of Siberian territory is well designed to give her a claim in the 
campaign while the other powers recede to that of Russian auxilia- 
ries. She had all to gain and nothing to lose. For in the unlikely 
event of her scheme miscarrying she had but to flatter Great Brit- 






ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 471 

ain by acquiescing in her cry about the ' integrity of China' and 
the ' open door ' to clear the course once more. 

" But she has made no mistake, and it will be found that an 
international occupation of Pekin will only end in one way : With 
Great Britain unready to fight for her rights, America both unready 
and as yet unwilling, France and Germany, the one hypnotized, the 
other softly menaced into acquiescence and Japan, again threatened 
by the triple alliance of Simonoseki, isolated and perhaps bribed by 
the Corean peninsula. 

" Russia holds the cards and some which few English people 
may yet suspect. Ready at her disposal is the bitter Anglophobia 
of France, with its unslaked thirst for vengeance. The great exhL 
bition is not yet over, but the menace of what may follow in certain 
events is judiciously revealed. The mobilization of large land 
forces in the northern departments of France strangely synchro- 
nize with the passage of the French Mediterranean squadron 
through the Straits of Gibraltar for manceuvers in the English 
Channel. But denuded as we are of land forces, France will not be 
loosed on us yet." 

Englishman and Slav still face each other in the Orient. 
Which will triumph remains to be seen. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Mystic India and Its Relation. 

Early Meeting of the Hindu and the Mongol — Interchange of Religious Ideas — Commercial 
Trade Established — Expeditions Sent to India — Emigration from India — Relations 
of the Two Nations to the West — India's Influence in China — Racial Differences- 
Indian Troops Now In China. 

TWENTY-TWO hundred years ago India gave to China a 
religion — Buddhism. For a thousand years prior to that 

time there had been cordial relations existing between the 
two nations. While the Chinaman made many additions to the 
Buddhist religion as he received it from his Indian teacher, the 
influence of India upon the Empire was great, and for the best. 
Many mountains and many plains intervened between China and 
India and were practically impassable in the early centuries. Com- 
munication between the two countries was effected by a detour 
through the Oxus basin. China then possessed the Tarim basin 
and there was maintained what has become known in history as 
the famous " silk " highway. This was known to the Greeks and 
it was by this and other routes that the rich products of southern 
Asia reached the Chinese commercial marts. Over the a silk " 
highway came also the Buddhist pilgrims and preached their faith 
in opposition to that of Confucius. Sixty-five years after the birth 
of Christ the Buddhist religion received the official recognition of 
the Chinese Emperor. 

Like the Indian, the Chinese was and is fond of pompous 
rites. The rich ornamentation of temples pleases his eye. He 
loves the poetry of the flowers introduced into the literature of his 
religion. He was pleased with his contact with India because it 
brought him tales of the superb southern lands lying beyond the 
snowy mountains. He was induced to travel. He met the Indian 
pilgrim on the way. They interchanged views. They found that 
their purpose in life was much the same. A friendly spirit was 
established. When they did not travel inland to reach each other, 
they took boats and passed through th<? Gulf of Tonkin. They 

472 



474 MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

touched at the Philippines and the Sunda Islands. They saw 
many strange things and wrote many curious books on what they 
saw and these books are still in existence. Chinese vessels came 
to Ceylon in search of relics and sacred writings. The merchants 
purchased their rich fabrics, precious stones and left behind them 
silks, porcelains and exquisite vases. As early as the year 166 a.d. 
an emperor of Rome sent an embassy to China by way of India. 

INDIA GAVE KNOWLEDGE. 

The golden age of Chinese literature had not yet been reached 
when the Chinaman first came in contact with the Hindu. The 
Hindu had mastered much. He had a system of philosophy and 
it appealed strongly to the Chinese imagination. His religion had 
been tested by more years than that of Confucius. He possessed 
great wealth. His architecture was stupendous. While the 
Chinaman was still battling with savage hordes, the Hindu had 
been contemplating many of the problems of life and solving them 
to his own satisfaction. He gave his views freely to his neighbor 
of the north. He journeyed to visit him through all the southern 
provinces and what is now the Empire proper. He became a 
permanent resident and transplanted all that 'he could from his 
native land. As a result, while he was swallowed by the China- 
man, he made an impression upon his art, his literature and even 
his daily life, which has not been removed to this day. The Hindu 
was in many ways the " father of all traders." He knew the talk 
of the shop. 

He enjoyed a bargain ; also by the necessities of his own 
country — flood, famine and plague — he had mastered many 
secrets of the soil, many principles of irrigation, many curious 
things in the way of fertilization. The Chinaman absorbed this 
knowledge from him with such a degree of success that even to-day 
one intimate with the race history of India may study the race 
types and the race history of China and read centuries of Hindu 
life in what is before him. It is next to impossible to study 
Chinese character and Chinese history without giving full credit 
to the Hindu for the part he played in developing the character of 
the Yellow man. 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 
INDIA'S MARTS OF TRADE. 



475 



So far as history can inform one India had a well-established 
commerce, on land and sea, before China had even developed a dis- 
tinct form of government. India possessed means of access to the 
ocean that China did not. India was on a highway much sought 
and traveled by the early explorers of Europe. The fame of the 
wealth of the princes of India had spread to all parts of the civil- 




CRUDE CHINESE COBBLING. 

ized world before China was known. China was a nation of mystery 
when much of India was fairly well known to Western nations. 

Reference has been made in other chapters to the great high- 
way which connected India and China from the earliest days, and 
also to the fact that the two nations came into close intercourse by 
water routes. The Indian was polished, a student, a philosopher. 
The Chinaman was but little developed. He had wealth but did 



476 MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

know what use to make of it. His ideas of art were crude. His 
religious system was not perfected. His literature was not yet 
out of the A, B, C's. 

It is the history of all nations that the first lesson learned by 
their primeval peoples is that of self-preservation ; conquering of 
the soil, providing subsistence for the family ; devising ways and 
means of resisting the assaults of enemies. Inter-related with this 
development is the religious sentiment — the idea of a Supreme 
Being, the thought of the hereafter ; the preparation for death ; the 
creation of a priesthood and a system of worship. 

The Chinese nation was no different in respect to the develop- 
ment of these two ideas than any other nation. The Chinaman 
was engaged in this work when the knowledge of developed India 
burst upon his mind and her savants and merchants became his 
friends. And because the first meeting of the Indian and the 
Chinaman was upon an entirely practical basis, their relations from 
the start were cordial. An intimacy beneficial to both nations 
arose and has iu many ways been continued to this day. 

THE CLOSEST FRIENDSHIP. 

The literature of Dharma was in its zenith w r hen the Chinaman 
made his first acquaintance with the Indian. Its mysticism, its 
poetry, charmed him. The Chinese Emperors sent expedition after 
expedition to the Indian princes, begging for knowledge of this 
wonderful worship. Costly silks were sent to the princes as pres- 
ents, and the ambassadors returned to Cathay laden with jewels and 
precious manuscripts. Chinese magnates went to India to perma- 
nently reside. Indian princes entered China, married Chinese 
women, settled down and became a part of the Empire. Thus, 
tenturies before any coherency of organization had ccme to the 
Western people China and India were knit together by bonds of 
the closest friendship. 

In the Chinese legends, found within the Book of Records^ 
there is one which relates to the meeting of a Chinese prince of 
the Emperor's court and an Indian priest. The time of the meet- 
ing is supposed to have been about 2,000 years before Christ. The 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 477 

translation of what took place between them is given free, not 

precise. 

The Chinese prince had gone to India in search of a stone. 
the possession of which it was said would insure eternal life for the 
owner. The prince desired to secure it and present it to his Em- 
peror. He came to the palace of the Indian prince, was welcomed, 
and sat down to dine with him. As the servants passed to and fro 
with costly viands and wonderful wines, the Chinese prince asked : 

" How is it, prince of a million souls, that you have always 
contentment of mind?" 

THE END OF ALL. 

" I have learned," was the reply, " that to life there must be 
an end. This being so, why should I disturb myself with what is ? 
I must pass into nothingness, sooner or later. Let me live then in 
happiness not fearing the end." 

" What proof have you that this is so?" asked the visitor. 

" My own consciousness teaches me that I cannot always be ; 
that matter is perishable and that the soul (Dharma) must event- 
ually be taken back to the spirit that first gave it forth. Why 
then should care have possession of me ? I live for my friends — • 
my enemies, they must come to the end as I." 

" Then you have happiness?" continued the Chinese nobleman. 

" No. Not happiness. That is not attainable on this earth. 
But there is always contentment with me and unrest of mind I 
know not. I attain this state by control of my mind, contempla- 
tion, much study of the sacred writings. I am content." 

" I will return to my people," said the Chinaman, " and they 
shall know of this in which I myself already believe." 

Now this is not quite the Buddhist religion as first preached, 
but so near it as to be accepted by the Chinese in good faith and 
practiced by them. That after having taken the Indian's religion 
they should have moulded parts of it to suit themselves is not a 
matter of consequence. Their savants acknowledged centuries ago 
their indebtedness to India and the savants of to-day do likewise. 

It is not a matter of general knowledge that the Catholic re- 



478 MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

ligion entered China through India ; that Roman priests were in 
India long before their advent in China, and that they passed from 
the Ganges to the Yellow river in their proselyting work. This 
work of the Catholic church in China, as well as in India, is of 
great importance because of the present complication in the Empire 
in which all churches are involved. 

While the various Protestant missionary societies are prepar- 
ing to present through their respective governments demands upon 
the imperial treasury of China for the loss of life and of property 
sustained in connection with the recent disturbances, the Roman 
Catholic missions propose to present their claims for indemnity 
through the Pope, and without the support or intervention of any 
of the great Powers of the Occident. 

The position of the Catholic church in China is so peculiar, 
and so little known, that the fact of the Vatican's proposal to deal 
directly with the Chinese authorities in the matter of indemnities, 
as well as in other questions, may render timely a few explanatory 
notes, upon the subject. 

POSITION OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. 

At the time of the outbreak of the recent Boxer insurrection 
the Roman Catholic church enjoyed altogether exceptional advant- 
ages in China and if there were certain difficulties (of which more 
anon) in the way of the maintenance of a Papal legation at Pekin 
and of a permanent Chinese embassy at Rome accredited to the 
Vatican, it was nevertheless a fact that Leo XIII was treated by 
the Celestial government as a full fledged sovereign. 

Indeed, it may be questioned whether the recognition by China 
of the secular pretensions of the Papacy was not more complete 
than that conceded b}^ such Roman Catholic powers as Austria- 
Hungary, France, Spain, Portugal and Bavaria, the venerable Pontiff 
being officially known in the Chinese Empire by the title of " Kiao 
Hoang," that is to say, the " Emperor of the Religion." 

This attitude of the Chinese toward the Papacy is by no means 
of modern origin. Three centuries ago when Roman Catholic 
missionary enterprise had attained the climax of its prosperity and 



MYSTIC INDIA AKD ITS RELATION. 47'.: 

development in China, when the principal advisers of the Emperor 
were European priests (some of whom were entrusted with the 
direction of the astronomical bureau, which was an all important 
department of the government) and when many of the highest 
authorities had embraced the Christian religion, there was no neces- 
sity for any championship of the missionary cause by European 
governments. 

The Vatican was in direct communication with the imperial 
court at Pekin, and there are records of frequent Chinese embassies 
being dispatched to Rome, and of Cardinals being sent by the Pope 
as legates to China for the purpose of settling without the inter- 
vention of any of the great Powers of Europe, questions arising 
between the Chinese state and the Roman Catholic church. 

THE VATICAN AND PEKIN. 

Christianity began to wane in China, as well as in the neigh- 
boring Empire of Japan, from the moment that the native authori- 
ties and the people realized that missionary enterprise was being 
used by the foreign Powers as a cloak for political projects calcu- 
lated to endanger the independence and the integrity of the Middle 
Kingdom. 

The intercourse betweeen the Vatican and Pekin became less 
cordial, and the missionaries finding themselves exposed first to the 
suspicion and then to the persecution of the Chinese authorities 
who had formerly been so friendly to them, thereupon turned for 
assistance to the first Power that manifested readiness to espouse 
their cause and to defend what they considered as their rights. 
That Power happened to be France and under the auspices of the 
French government the Roman Catholic missionaries developed 
more and more into political agents, thus confirming the Chinese 
in their prejudice and suspicions. 

In course of time the French government assumed the protec- 
tion, not only of every Roman Catholic missionary in China irre- 
spective of nationality, but likewise to put forth a pretension to 
similar rights over all natives who had become converts to Chris- 
tianity, thus implying that the conversion of a native to the Roman 



480 MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

Catholic religion was sufficient to transform him ipse facto into a 
French subject, and as such to exempt him from the jurisdiction 
and authority of the imperial government and from the payment 
of native taxes and dues. 

RELATIONS WITH THE POPE REVIVED. 

It was not until the overthrow of Napoleon III and the estab- 
lishment of a form of government in France distinguished by its 
hostility to the Papacy that the Chinese authorities reached the 
conclusion that the time had come to put an end to a situation that 
was not merely intolerable but likewise illogical, since it was obvi- 
ously absurd for France to affect the role of the protector of the 
interests of the Roman Catholic Church in the Orient, while pub- 
licly assailing them in the Occident. 

Accordingly, the Chinese Emperor dispatched a letter to Rome 
inviting the Pope to revive the former friendly relations between 
the Vatican and the Chinese Government, offering to appoint a 
resident Chinese envoy accredited to the Pontifical court, and ask- 
ing at the same time for the creation of a Papal embassy at Pekin, 
through which all business in connection with the Roman Catholic 
Church and Roman Catholic missionary enterprise might be con- 
ducted. 

Leo XIII sent a favorable reply, and the negotiations t!ius 
begun were conducted with so much discretion and success that it 
was not until an eminent prelate, since promoted to the rank of 
Cardinal, was sent out to Pekin as Papal Ablegate for the purpose 
of taking all Roman Catholics under his wing and superseding the 
French Protectorate that the Paris government obtained any ink- 
ling of the scheme. 

M. de Freycinet was then Premier and Foreign Minister of ' 
France. Realizing that his country would lose much of its 
importance as a factor in Chinese affairs if divested of the protect- 
orate of the Roman Catholic missions in the Far East, he at ouce 
addressed an ultimatum to the Vatican threatening to cut off the 
$10,000,000 voted annually to the French clergy and to deprive the 
Roman Catholic Church in France of all financial State support 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 



481 




unless the Papal Ablegate were immediately recalled from Pekin 
and the projected transfer of the control and charge of Roman 
Catholic interests in China from the French envoy to a Papal lega- 
tion abandoned. 

That closed the affair for the time being. The Pope unwilling 
to deprive the entire parish clergy of France at a moment's notice 
of the financial help from the State had no alternative but to recall 
his envoy. The Chinese authorities, on perceiving the predica- 
ment of Leo XIII, set to 
work to put an end to the 
French protectorate in a 
different manner. 

Realizing that its 
existence had only been 
made possible by a waiver 
of right and a dereliction 
of duty on the part of the 
German, Italian, Spanish, 
Portuguese and Belgian 
governments, they asked 
them, especially Germany , 
Austria and Italy, to as- 
sert their rights over their 
missionaries. To this the 
three governments in the 
triple alliance agreed. In 
this way France was deprived, through the action of the triple al- 
liance, of all right of control of German, Austrian or Italian 
Catholic missionaries. 

France, unable to raise any obstacle to this clever move on the 
part of the Chinese government, came to the conclusion that only 
by means of a compromise with the Vatican would it be able to 
retain any vestige of its former role of the principal protecting 
power of Roman Catholicism in the Orient. Accordingly, it 
became a party to a remarkable convention between the Vatican 
and the Chinese government, according to the terms of which the 
31 




MARQUIS SALVAGO RAGGI, 
Italian Minister at Pekin. 



482 MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

Chinese government recognized and authorized the Roman Catholic 
religion as one of the official denominations of the Empire. 

PROVISIONS OF THE CONVENTION. 

In the preamble of the convention are found the words 
" Churches of the Catholic religion, the propagation of which has 
long been authorized by the imperial government, are now being- 
erected in all the provinces of China." The convention provides 
that questions in connection with the Roman Catholic missions in 
China shall be settled in an amicable manner between the Chinese 
authorities and the heads of the various missionary stations, for 
which purpose bishops are recognized by the terms of the conven- 
tion as of equal rank with the governors or viceroys of provinces 
while apostolic vicars, provincials and superiors are similarly en- 
dowed with official status equivalent to that of the prefects of towns 
and of districts. 

Chinese dignitaries, from viceroys downward, are commanded 
to interchange official courtesies with the Roman Catholic bishops 
and clergy, and to do everything in their power to arrange affairs 
amicably with them. 

It is only when such an arrangement has become impossible 
that the missions of France, of Belgium, of Spain, and of Portugal 
are to invoke the intervention and championship of France, the pro- 
tecting power, while those of Germany, Austria, and Italy may 
appeal to their respective sovereigns. In view of the anxiety of 
the Chinese government to avoid giving France (or any other foreign 
government) any excuse for exercising her pretensions as a pro- 
tecting power, the native authorities may be relied upon to do all in 
their power to meet the view of the Roman Catholic missions. 
This convention, in which Leo XIII is described as the " Emperor 
of the Religion," has received the signatures of the Pontiff, of 
the Emperor of China and of the Empress Dowager, and likewise 
of the French government. 

That is why Leo XIII will present directly to the Chinese gov- 
ernment, when re-established, the demands for indemnity for loss 
of life and property suffered by the Roman Catholic missions, and 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 



483 



it is only in the improbable event of these demands being rejected 
by the Chinese that the Vatican will call upon the protecting 
Powers. That is to say, the Pope would call upon France in con- 
nection with the injury suffered by the French, Belgian, Spanish 
and Portuguese missions. Germany would take up claims in con- 
nection with the German Catholic missions, Francis Joseph would 
enforce those of the Austrian missions, while the Italian govern- 
ment, without any request from the Vatican, would naturally 
espouse the cause of the 
missions composed of Ita- 
lian clergy. 

Sooner than allow 
affairs to come to such a 
pass, and rather than to 
permit these claims for 
indemnity presented by 
Leo XIII to become the 
pretext for additional 
exactions on the part of 
the great Powers, the 
Chinese government will 
prefer to settle with the 
Vatican direct. That is 
why it is probable that the 
Roman Catholic missions, 
presenting their demands 
for damages through the Pope, will have them more speedily granted 
than the Protestant missions, which intrust their claims to their 
respective governments. 

This merely bears out the theory derived from a considerable 
experience of the Orient, that the protection of a Western govern- 
ment is a source of weakness rather than of strength to missionary 
enterprise, and that the object of the latter can be best attained 
w T hen there is no suspicion in the minds of the natives that the 
missionary is using the cloak of religion to conceal his political 
aim. 




DR. ARTHUR V. ROSTHORN. 
Secretary Austrian Legation at Pekin. 



484 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 



CHINAMEN ARE INDIFFERENT. 

This much is said of the Vatican and the Catholic church in 
China, not only because it was from India that the influence of the 
Catholic church came to China, but also because the Catholic clergy 
have always sought in their own way to encourage the past cordial 
relations between the two nations. The Protestant church, much 
younger in the field, has already reached the point where it realizes 
how closely the two nations have inter-related and like the Catholic 

church is recognizing 
how much China owes to 
India, despite the new 
civilization of the West 
which tc-day promises to 
revolutionize the char- 
acters of both nations. 

They say the phil- 
osophy of the Indian 
created the pi esent indif- 
fference of the Chinaman 
to current events. In re- 
gard to this the Rt. Rev. 
Henry C. Potter in The 
Century tells this story: 
" There is among 
the Chinese one supreme 
want, which, whether in 
art, in literature, or in 
human conduct, is equally conspicuous. They are a people with 
their eyes in the back of their heads. Their ideals, so far as they 
have any, are all behind them. They know nothing of a divine 
discontent. Complacency, absolute, invariable, all-pervading, is 
the supreme note of all Chinese life. 

" That a thing was, is reason sufficient to the ordinary Chinese 
mind that it should continue to be ; and that anybody who has not 
been hired to do so should concern himself with even a curiosity, 




MAURICE JOOSTENS, 
Belgian Minister at Pekin. 




CALVIN PEARL TITUS 

FIRST OF THE ALLIED TROOPS TO SCALE THE WALL OF PEKIN AND PLANT 

THE AMERICAN FLAG, LEADING THE WAY TO THE RESCUE 

OF THE FOREIGN MINISTERS 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 485 

much more an endeavor, that it should be better, is to the Chinese 
mind only an excellent joke. M. Hue in his masterly work on 
China and the Chinese, relates that in 1857 at the period of the 
death of the Emperor Jao Kuang he was traveling 'on the road 
from Pekin and one day' he says, ' when we had been taking tea 
at an inn in company with some Chinese citizens we tried to get 
up a little political discussion. 

" ' We spoke of the recent death of the Emperor, an important 
event which, of course, must have interested everybody. We ex- 
pressed anxiety on the subject of the succession to the throne, the 
heir to which was not yet publicly announced. Who knows, said 
we, which of these sons of the Emperor will have been appointed 
to succeed him ? If it should be the elder, will he pursue the same 
system of government ? If the younger, he is still very young, 
and it is said that there are contrary influences — two opposing 
parties — at court. To which will he lean ? 

APATHY OF CHINESE. 

" ( We put forward in short, all kinds of hypotheses, in order 
to stimulate these good citizens to make some observation. But 
to all our suggestions and inquiries they replied by shaking their 
heads, puffing out whiffs of smoke and taking great gulps of tea. 
This apathy was becoming almost provoking, when one of them, 
getting up from his seat, came and laid his two hands on our shoul- 
ders in a manner quite paternal, and said, smiling rather ironically: 
Listen to me, my friend. Why should you trouble your head and 
fatigue your heart with all these vain surmises ? The Mandarins 
have to attend to affairs of state ; they are paid for it. Let them 
earn their money, then. But don't let us trouble ourselves about 
what does not concern us. We should be great fools to want to do 
political business for nothing. That is very conformable to reason 
said the rest of the company; and they then pointed out to us that 
' our tea was getting cold and that our pipes were out.' " 

It is the Rev. Potter, who in his recent article on " Chinese 
Traits and Western Blunders," writes : 

" Let us for a moment turn such a situation 'the other end 



486 MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 

foremost.' Let us suppose it to be the Buddhists of India who are 
sending missionaries to America ; it is said that they have set 
about doing so. They ingratiate themselves with the civil author- 
ities, and get certain of their number appointed police magistrates. 
There is a considerable conversion of native Americans to the 
religion of Buddha, and these, when they fail to pay their taxes or 
otherwise to obey the law, are tried by Buddhist magistrates, who 
take care that they are always very gently dealt with. 

" I do not say that there may not have been in China wrong 
and injustice toward the Christian converts. But I do say that if 
such methods of protecting Buddhist converts were to obtain 
among us it would provoke an uprising, which we for our part 
would maintain to be abundantly justified by the conditions which 
had provoked it." 

INDIA WORKED FOR THE GOOD. 

The art, the literature, the religion, the home customs, the 
every-day habits of the people of China were tremendously affected 
at an early period by contact with the Indian — the Hindu priest, 
the Hindu merchant, the Hindu prince. Europe was a wilderness, 
inhabited by men half-savages ; America was unknown ; Egypt 
was sunken in ruin, when the intelligence of India met that of 
China and modified it so much that a kinship between the two 
nations has always existed since. 

It seems then all the more strange that at this time, with dis- 
ruption of the Empire threatened, England should send as part of 
her troops for Chinese service, Indian soldiers. It is true that the 
native of any climate, as a rule, makes a better soldier in that 
climate than men brought from another zone. But it seems pitia- 
ble that after centuries of friendly relation, of mutual assistance, 
the Indian soldier of England should be forced to take his weapon 
and prepare for assault on the descendants of the very people whom 
his ancient princes delighted to honor. 

It was in India, from whence these soldiers come, that the 
Chinese embassy found the God they were searching for ; it was 
in India they uncovered a literature far superior to their own ; it 



MYSTIC INDIA AND ITS RELATION. 487 

was in India they lingered in friendship for years. It was from 
India whence came the teachers who were to make Hinduism the 
most powerful religion of the most populous nation in the world. 

Better it seems than that they should be thrown at each others 
throats that the Chinaman and the Indian be encouraged to study 
Western ways while preserving for their wonderful past all the 
respect due to an ancestry, pioneers in the work of developing man 
from the savage to the human ; the human to the divine. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Other Foreign Powers. 

Masterful Position of the United States — Where France and Germany Stand — The Philip- 
pines and How They May Affect China — Proposed Partition of the Empire — What 
This May Mean — Li Hung Chang, the Great Diplomat — Coming Western World 
Changes — Hope for the Future. 

ON the richest, largest and best-watered plain in the world 
dwell one- fourth of the human race. Man for man, the 
Chinese are superiors of any nation by which they are sur- 
rounded, says a writer in Leslie's Weekly. Patient, industrious, 
peaceful, understanding organization, the Chinaman sets a high 
value on the comforts and enjoyments of life. He wants many 
things, and often the things that we can give him. He is not 
much given to traveling from his native land. 

Only the Chinese of two or three southern provinces have yet 
traveled into countries adjoining, across the sea to the United 
States, and southward to Australia. Yet, wherever he goes, he 
shows his superiority by ousting the petty native traders, at 
Manila, in Corea and Saigon, for example, because he has a far 
better commercial instinct ard training, more insight, patience and 
perseverance. 

In Asia the Chinese are the freest people and the most demo- 
cratic. The merchant, instead of being socially inferior, as in old 
Japan, Corea and India, is in China honored. Within his own 
country he likes to travel, move and sell his goods, and has long 
been noted for his canals, internal commerce by junk and boat, by 
wagon and litter, by pack horse and mule and on the human back. 

His weakness is that he lacks mental initiative, invention and 
desire for novelties unless first convinced that he needs them. In 
a word, where the Chinese is defective the American abounds. 
The latter can show the former the better way, furnish him with, 
the modern inventions and demonstrate that the new labor-saving 
devices are mutually and ultimately better for all. Once it was 
488 






OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 489 

thought that Chinese prejudice was invulnerable, that the feng 

shuey (wind and water) superstition, which is really a rough sort 

of natural science and hygiene, would forever operate to prevent 

telegraphs and railways. Facts have proved that the contrary is 

the case. 

AMERICA EXCELS OTHER NATIONS. 

In both price and kind we can excel other nations in giving 
the Chinese what they need. There is a continual and increasing 
demand for our railway equipments. In Russian Asia, Corea and 
in Japan we have already shown what our workmen and manufac- 
tures can do. The American locomotive is cheaper and better fitted 
for the new railways, which must follow the configuration of a 
country with its varied features. In cotton imports American trade 
has within a decade increased 121 per cent in quantity and 59.5 per 
cent in value. Our petroleum is much better than the Russian 
article. Despite the use of inferior Russian oil which is poured 
into American tins and thus sold, our imports of oil increased from 
$1,000,000 to $5,000,000 in the decade from 1887 to 1897. In 
flour, lumber and machinery we show a steady gain. 

Interesting statistics concerning foreigners in China are con- 
tained in a report in regard to the trade relations between China 
and the United States at the State Department. The report is 
made by Consul Fowler at Chee-foo and is dated May 7, 1900, so 
that it is practically up to date. The table of foreigners is divided 
into two classes — residents and firms — and includes statistics for 
the years 1898 and 1899. The tota ^ foreign residents are stated as 
follows: 1898, 13,421; 1899, 17,193, and the foreign firms as fol- 
lows : 1898, 773 ; 1899, 933- 

The nationality of the foreign element for 1899 is stated as 
follows : 

American — Residents, 2,335, an increase of 279 ; firms, 70, an 
increase of 27. 

British — Residents, 5,562, an increase of 414; firms, 401, an 
increase of 3. 

German — Residents, 1,134, an increase of 91 ; firms, 115, an 
increase of 8. 



490 



OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 



French — Residents, 1,183, au increase of 263; firms, 76, an 
increase of 39. 

Dutch — Residents, 106, an increase of 19 ; firms, 9, an in- 
crease of 1. 

Danish — Residents, 128, an increase of 11 ; firms, 4, an in- 
crease of 1. 




TOWN AND HARBOR OF VICTORIA, HONG KONG. 

Spanish — Residents, 448, an increase of 53 ; firms, 9, an in- 
crease of 5. 

Swedish and Norwegian — Residents, 244, an increase of 44 ; 
firms, 2, an increase of 2. 

Russian— Residents, 1,621, an increase of 1,456; firms, 19, an 
increase of 3. 

Austrian — Residents, 90, a decrease of 2 ; firms, 5, no change. 

Belgian — Residents, 234, an increase of 65 ; firms, 9, no change. 



OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 491 

Italian — Residents, 124, a decrease of 17 ; firms, 9, no change. 

Japanese — Residents, 2,440, an increase of 746 ; firms, 195, an 
increase of 81. 

Portuguese — Residents, 1,423, an increase of 339 ; firms, 10, a 
decrease of 10. 

Corean — Residents, 42, an increase of 2 ; no firms. 

Non-Treaty Powers — Residents, 29, an increase of 2 ; no firms. 

STEADY GAIN OF FOREIGNERS. 

The total number of residents, 17,193, shows an increase of 
3,772 over 1898. The total number of firms, 933, shows an increase 
of 160 over 1898. 

The figures show that Russia made the greatest gain in the 
number of residents and Japan in the number of firms, France 
coming next in the latter respect. 

Consul Fowler says that these figures do not include the leased 
ports, and that it must be remembered that in the case of Great 
Britain a large number of Indians and Asiatics (Chinese born in 
Hong Kong, the Straits, etc.), are included. 

Consequently it is difficult to determine the true number of 
British in China. Moreover, by British law, every British subject 
is compelled to register in his consulate, but with Americans this 
registration is optional. Consul Fowler expresses the belief that 
the number of American residents is greatly understated. 

THE CLASHING NATIONS. 

It is possible that in spite of the efforts of the United States 
and Great Britain, which after all are the only great powers inter- 
ested in preventing the partition of the Chinese Empire, the result 
of the present conditions obtaining in the Orient will be the parcel- 
ing out of the provinces of the Celestial Kingdom. The United 
States does not want any of China's territory — only the opportunity 
to trade with the Empire — but with the principal nations of Kurope 
it is different. 

Each one has a " sphere in influence " in China now, but not 
absolute possession ; in case of a division the land would pass out 



492 OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

of the hands of the Chinese and the claimant would get a quitclaim 
deed which would necessitate the expenditure of much blood and 
treasure to retain. 

It is to the interest of England to preserve the territorial 
integrity of China, for the reason that in the advent of division, it 
would not be possible for her to maintain her sovereignty in the 
vast area allotted to her control. By treaty with China, and Rus- 
sia as well, the Yang-tze-kiang valley provinces have been marked 
as the British " sphere of influence," a total area of about 700,000 
square miles, and including the provinces of Nganwhei, Honan, 
Kiang-si, Hunan, Kwei-Chew and Sechuen. 

The Yang-tze-kiang is the national highway of China, and the 
provinces named lie to the north and south of it ; the stream is so 
large that ocean steamers pass up beyond Hankow, and it is navi- 
gable for hundreds of miles ; and this river and its tributaries fur- 
nish the only avenue of commerce for the central, which is the 
richest portion of the Chinese Empire. 

NUMEROUS INSURRECTIONS. 

In case England was compelled to take over this mighty 
stretch of territory it would fall upon her to govern it and preserve 
peace and order within its limits, a task she does not care to under- 
take, seeing as fully a quarter of a million troops would be required 
to put down the rebellious uprisings which would frequently occur. 
The celestials are so accustomed to insurrections they could hardly 
be induced to forego them, and as the insurgents would be well 
armed, the trouble and destruction they could cause cannot be pre- 
dicted. 

England has her best troops — some 225,000 — in South Africa 
now, and the soldiers necessary for duty in China could only be 
secured from India and England — the former native regiments and 
not entirely trustworthy, and the latter raw levies. Whether the 
Indian Mohammedan subjects of the queen-empress would be will- 
ing to fight against fellow Mohammedans in China is a question. 
Yet the British " sphere '' in the Celestial Kingdom is the richest 
portion, and England would not give it up without a struggle. 




THE BOXERS INCITING THE PEOPLE TO INSURRECTION BY A PUNCH 
AND JUDY SHOW. THE PIG REPRESENTS THE MISSIONARY 




TARTAR SOLDIERS DESTROYING VILLAGES AROUND TIEN-TSIN 



OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 493 

English and French interests conflict in the province of Yun- 
nan which is wealthy in tea and mining interests, where the influ- 
ence of France, by treaty with China, is paramount. By virtue of 
this same treaty France, who holds Tonquin securely and has 
grabbed the sugar island of Hainan, was also given the right t 
include the provinces of Kiang-si and Kwangtung in her " sphere 
of influence." France, therefore, practically controls nearly 400,- 
000 square miles of Chinese territory, and if this were allotted to 
her outright she would be compelled to maintain an army of at 
least 100,000 men there. 

RUSSIA'S WAITING. 

Of all the great powers Russia is better situated, geograph- 
ically, to assume control and domination of territory in China than 
any other. Siberia borders upon the northern frontier of China ; 
the province of Manchuria is virtually Russian ; Port Arthur 
owned by the Czar's government, is but 300 miles from Pekin, 
while the Trans-Siberian Railway, almost completed, running from 
St. Petersburg to Vladivostock, affords superb and perfect means 
for the transportation of troops, supplies and munitions of war. A 
railroad line will soon connect Vladivostock with Pekin, which, it 
is feared by other powers, may in the near future be occupied by 
the Czar's forces. 

If Russia ever secures possession of the imperial capital she 
will retain it beyond doubt. In case of a partition of China, Russia 
would, in all probability, be awarded Mongolia (1,300,000 square 
miles) the province of Sin-kiang and Tibet, each with 550,000 square 
miles of land. The province of Kan-su, also, it is generally con- 
ceded, would be included in the portion doled out to the bear. It 
stands to reason, too, that it would not be long ere branch lines of 
railway connecting central China with the Trans-Siberian road 
were constructed and in full operation under Russia's absolute 
control. 

Kaiser William of Germany lays claim to the province of Shan- 
tung, in which Confucius was born, containing some 56,000 square 
miles of territory, and when the break-up came would, in the natural 



494 OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

course of things get the province just to the south of it — Kiang-su. 
Germany's sea base in China is the port and the city of Kiae-chow, 
on the Yellow Sea. She is sending several thousand troops to the 
Orient now, and it is hardly among the possibilities any consider- 
able number of these will ever be withdrawn. 

Japan, after all, has not fared so badly in China, although she 
claimed to have been robbed of the fruits of her victory in the war 
of 1894. The island of Formosa has been ceded to her, and she 
would be allowed, beyond doubt, the province of Fu-kien, on the 
opposite mainland. This would give her the port and city of Foo- 
chow. 

WARSHIPS IN CHINA WATERS. 

As Italy has warships in Chinese waters and is ready to dis- 
patch 10,000 troops, if needed, to China, she may realize her ambi- 
tion and secure a good part of the province of Che-kiang. For 
some time past she has endeavored to fasten herself to San Nun 
Bay, without any particularly brilliant success. 

According to alleged plans, carefully laid, sixteen of the nine- 
teen provinces of China are allotted to foreign nations, and should 
the division be made the present imperial Manchu dynasty, repre- 
sented by Emperor Kwang-Su would retain the three provinces of 
Pechili, Shensi, and Shansi — an area of 275,000 square miles, con- 
taining about 40,000,000 people. 

It is England's policy to wait. Ultimately she will absorb the 
the Yang-tze-kiang valley, but she will be better prepared in 1950 
to attend to this rather delicate matter than now. As has been her 
custom in other lands, she in time, would have the Chinese in the 
absorbed territory govern themselves — which is to say, order would 
be maintained by trained and disciplined Chinese troops officered 
by Englishmen. 

In the present situation it is thought England could depend 
upon Japan to assist in preventing the partition of China, for the 
Japanese hate the Russians and would willingly stop their aggres- 
sions south of the Siberian boundary. How far the United States 
is willing to go in preserving China's territorial integrity is a 
question. 



OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 495 

According to M. Rambaud, an ultimate clash between England 
and Russia is little less than certain. As early as 1791 a French- 
man proposed a plan to Catherine II for the conquest of Hindustan. 
Paul I also submitted to Napoleon Bonaparte a project for sending 
an allied army into India to " free the princes and the people from 
the yoke of English tyranny." 

James MacGahan, one of the best-informed men on eastern 
affairs wrote from the shores of the Oxus in 1876: " The Russians 
are steadily advancing toward India, and will sooner or later acquire 
a position in Central Asia which will enable them to threaten it, 
Should England be engaged in a European war, then, indeed, Rus- 
sia will probably strike a blow at England's Indian power." 

PERILS OF PARTITION. 

The best guarantee of the integrity of the Chinese Empire are 
the bewildering difficulties in the way of satisfactorily cutting it up. 
One of the queerest of the many queer conditions in Queueland is 
touched on by Mark B. Dunnell, who considers " Our Rights in 
China,'' in the "Atlantic." 

At most of the important treaty ports the foreigners reside in 
what are termed foreign settlements. As these are all formed on 
the order of the one at Shanghai, a description of that will serve 
for the others. The foreign part of Shanghai is divided into the 
French, English and American settlements, though most of the 
Frenchmen live and do business in the English settlement. To 
further complicate matters, the American consulate is in the Eng- 
lish settlement, which, in a legal sense, is no more English than 
American. 

The government of the settlement, relates Mr. Dunnell, is 
vested in the consular representatives of the foreign powers, in 
a municipal council elected by the land-renters, and in the land- 
renters assembled in town meeting. This municipal council is an 
administrative board and has charge of the police, roads, parks and 
waterworks. It collects the municipal taxes, and is the trustee of 
the municipal property. 

The legislature of the little republic is the annual town meet- 



496 OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

ing of the land-renters, which votes the annnal tax levy and passes 
ordinance. The mnnicipality has a constitution, or charter, deriv- 
ing its authority from the joint sanction of the Chinese government 
and the foreign powers. Every foreign land-renter has a vote in 
the town meeting, and is eligible to municipal office. 

Now, when one considers that these little republics exist in all 
the important treaty ports, that they have an international status 
that cannot well be changed without the joint consent of the powers, 
that the great bulk of the foreign trade is carried on where these 
little commonwealths exist, that the great centers of foreign trade 
in China are fixed as the stars, it is not difficult to realize the 
dangers — not to China — that are involved in a proposition to ap- 
portion the Chinese Empire among the Christian nations and Japan. 

The Chinese themselves keenly appreciate the situation as the 
following editorial from the North China Daily News of Shanghai 
shows : 

"The Insatiable Greed of Western Nations. 
Let China Beware! 

" Foreigners have for many years united themselves, aand have 
been laying their plans with regard to China. Originally they 
availed themselves of the plea of the mutual advantages arising 
out of commerce to induce China to open treaty ports at which they 
could trade. Next, under pretexts of various losses, in order to 
enrich themselves, they compelled China to pay certain indemni- 
ties. To-day they are mooting the questions of railways and 
mines, and using them as a pretext to get our country from us. Their 
purpose is, trusting in their strength, to partition out and divide 
among themselves our country. 

POWERS COMPARED WITH FISHERMEN. 

" Like chess-players, who place their pieces preparatory to 
attacking and vanquishing the enemy they have arranged their 
forces. Like fishermen, who first of all silently throw the net into 
the water and then gather out the fish, they are preparing to 
catch China. They believe they have, and perhaps do possess, the 






OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 497 

ability to divide China like a watermelon. They have already 
seized and they hold the most important positions with a view to 
this end. First by insinuating that mutual gain would result 
therefrom, they have arranged treaties with us, which was obviously 
the beginning of our calamities. 

" In the present dispute between Russia and England, ruin 
for China lurks. In realit}^ it is only a quarrel about the partition 
of China. Indeed, the surrounding circumstances are converging 
to this partition. Foreigners are ever scheming for this. Their 
discussions tend to the same results. The signs of this impending 
calamity, moreover, are all too apparent within our borders. But 
the opportunity to partition and snatch from us our country will be 
made by outsiders. 

GRAVE CHARGES AGAINST FOREIGNERS. 

" If, then, China is to regain her original power, she must 
arouse herself and mend her ways. If she exerts herself to her 
full ability, she will then be able to foil the strategies of her 
enemis ; if she will but exert herself to any extent, she can ward 
off,for a time at least, the actual partition. Then the violence with 
which foreigners insult us, although it appears to be all-powerful, 
will turn out not to be so, and our distress will really be no distress 
at all. 

" But alas ! there is a fatal tranquility that arises from a con- 
dition of coma, a darkness arising out of a state of crass igno- 
rance, so that, though dangers like falling mountains threaten us, 
many seem unable to observe the impending ruin. True, there are 
earnest scholars of the Empire, but they only smite the breast and 
weep tears of blood more bitterly, indeed, than in the da}^s of the 
tribulation of Ki. Let our readers clearly understand that the 
attitude of all foreigners toward China is guided by one principle ; 
they unite their energies and combine their forces in order to 
gratify their one ambition, which is to partition and rob us of our 
country." 

Of this the Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter says : 

ci Such has been the cry with which, of late, China, north and 
32 



498 OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

south, has rung. We nave seen and are seeing some of the bloody 
fruits of this inflamed and national hatred. May a large wisdom 
and a temper other than that of mere revenge deal with the Chinese 
question as the essential qualities in it demands. We are told that 
the destiny of China is to be partitioned up among the great powers. 
There could not be a more stupid or shameless policy." 

The real situation in the imbroglio is thus treated by Minister 
Wu, Chinese representative at Washington : 

" There is a Chinese saying : ' If you want to condemn a man 
you can always find an excuse for so doing without any difficulty.' 
There is a disposition in some quarters, I am told, to do everything 
possible to embroil China in a war with the foreign powers at the 
present time, or to bring about a partition of the country in the 
hope of securing more concessions or commercial advantages in the 
final settlement. 

WRONG JUDGMENT OF CHINESE IDEAS. 

u All the baseless inventions detrimental to China which have 
appeared in the newspapers are supposed to have this end in view. 
I feel reluctant, however, to impute such evil motives to those who 
have thus unwittingly worked against China. I am inclined to 
believe that they have fallen into the mistake of judging Chinese 
ideas and doings by the Western standard. I will give an illus- 
tration : 

" Newspapers nowadays often mention this official as belonging 
to the anti-foTeign party, and that official as a leader with progres- 
sive tendencies. These terms are very misleading. To an Ameri- 
can reader the word ' party' conveys the idea of an organization of 
men in public life who are bound by certain political ties and recog- 
nize certain principles in the conduct of public affairs. There are 
no such parties in China. All deductions from the existence in 
Chinese politics of a party in power and a party in opposition are 
absolutely at fault. 

" Again, the widely heralded enmity between the Manchus and 
the Chinese. From the relations of a conquered nation to its con- 
querors, Americans naturally infer that the Chinese must hate the 



OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 499 

Manchus and only wait for an opportunity to rise against their sup- 
posed oppressors. Nothing would be further from the truth. In 
Pekin Manchus and Chinese freely mingle in social and official 
life. The same is also true in other pn.rts of the Empire. In point 
of fact, there is about as much enmity between the Chinese and the 
Manchus as there is between the Scotch and the English at the 
present time. 

CHINESE OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 

" Moreover, it must be remembered that most of the high offi- 
cials in Pekin are born and bred Chinese of the old school. All the 
princes and nearly all the ministers of state have spent most of their 
days within the four walls of the capital. They have never visited 
even other parts of the Empire, not to say foreign lands, nor can 
they speak any other language besides their own. They have 
absolutely no knowledge or experience of foreigners or foreign 
ways, except those who are ministers of the Tsung-li-yamen (the 
Foreign Office), and the experience of these men has been confined 
exclusively to their official intercourse with the foreign representa- 
tives at Pekin. 

" Under the circumstances, it is not strange that they should 
often do and say things which are right in their own eyes, but 
which, when transmitted through a foreign medium, assume a 
different aspect. It is well for foreigners to show a little forbear- 
ance in dealing with the Chinese, and the Chinese will not be found 
wanting in grateful appreciation. 

" China is now passing through an important crisis in her 
history. Troublous times are apt to engender fierce passions. She 
desires only to be treated fairly and justly by other nations. The 
baseless reports that have been circulated in the newspapers about 
the recent happenings in different parts of China have done incal- 
culable harm in that they have served to make the situation, 
already serious, more difficult. 

" One should be particularly careful in sifting facts and slow 
in forming conclusions in these days of sensational journalism 
There is a saying that 'one man's meat is another man's poison.' 



500 OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

This is true of nations as well as of individuals. The conditions and 
environments of life are so different in the Orient from those in the 
Occident that the same cause will often produce widely diverse 
effects. Throw water on a burning building and it will put out 
the fire. Throw water into a tank of sulphuric acid, and it will 
generate so much heat as to cause an explosion. 

" It is only from an Eastern point of view that the difficulties 
arising in China can be seen in their true proportions and bearings. 
Great care must be exercised in determing the proper course to be 
pursued in dealing with Eastern nations so that no irretrievable 
wrong may be committed. Let justice and consideration for others 
be the guiding principles on all occasions." 

It is impossible to overestimate the effect the acquisition of the 
Philippine Islands by the United States will have upon China. 
American trade is now to predominate in these islands where the 
Chinese merchant has so long held sway. The Chinaman will 
learn American mercantile ways under peaceful conditions. He 
will find American products almost at his own door instead of having 
to as heretofore cross the Pacific to come in contact with them. 
Within the next ten years American influence will be so powerful 
in the Philippines that it will radiate from them to China and Japan 
and redound to the great mercantile benefit of this nation. The 
recent uprising and the opening of the Philippines mean the re- 
building of China. 

LI HUNG CHANG. 

Li Hung Chang may open China to the Western worW Of 
this wonderful Oriental statesman, Frank G. Carpenter, the well- 
known traveler and author, says : 

" Li Hung Chang will do what he can to help his old mistress 
and his country. He is one of the shrewdest diplomats alive, and 
I believe he is as tricky as he is shrewd. I have heard much of him 
during my various visits to China, and have had a number of long 
interviews with him. 

" I met him first in 1888 when I visited Tien-Tsin on my trip 
around the world. He was the viceroy of Chihli and superinten- 
dent of the trade of North China. His income from this position 



OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 501 

was several hundred thousand dollars a year, and he has already 
amassed millions. 

" The next time I meet him was six years later when he was 
richer and more powerful than ever. This was j ust before the war 
between China and Japan ; Li's wife had died and he had given 
her a funeral the cost of which would have been a fortune to the 
ordinary American. He had had a birthday on which his presents 
had amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and he was on the 
top notch of prosperity. I took a trip in his special car to the 
Chinese wall and had the honor of being a guest at a dinner which 
he gave to our former Secretary of State, John W. Foster. 

A COSTLY DINNER. 

The dinner was of that extravagant nature only affected by 
the millionaire Chinese. It embraced about thirty courses and 
many of the viands were of the costliest description, the shark fins 
having cost their weight in silver and the delicate birds' nest soup 
being almost as expensive as liquid gold. At that time I spent an 
afternoon with his excellency. He talked freely about all matters 
relating to China, including the rebellion in Corea, which afterward 
brought about the war. 

" My next interview was at the Arlington Hotel in Washing- 
ton. The great Chinese earl had seen his forces defeated in battle 
by the so-called 'Japanese monkeys.' He had lost his yellow jacket? 
but he was as proud and cocky as ever, for his trip around the 
world was almost a triumphal one. 

" My fourth and last interview with Li Hung Chang was held 
just before the outbreak of the present trouble in China. I spent 
a few days with my friend Hubbard T. Smith, who was then in charge 
of the consulate at Canton, and through his influence and a special 
request from Consul Goodnow and letters of introduction from the 
State Department at Washington was again able' to have a long 
conversation with Earl Li. 

"I found him living in great state in Canton. He was getting 
a nominal salary of only a few thousand dollars a year, but the 
actual receipts from his office were in the neighborhood of $500,000, 



502 OTHER FOREIGN POWERS. 

and his personal possessions were estimated at something like 
$100,000,000. I was told that he had been sent to Canton by the 
Empress Dowager as a reward for his services, in order that he 
might line his own pockets and at the same time squeeze $10,000,- 
000 or so out of South China for the mighty old lady of Pekin." 

Mr. Carpenter writes from Shanghai as follows: " This war 
is bound to result in the reorganization of the Chinese government. 
It will be of no value to the world if it does not. I have traveled 
considerably over the Empire. Its government is honeycombed 
with corruption. It is like an old cheese filled with skippers, which 
if rendered out into soap grease could not furnish enough to wash 
China clean. This corruption is everywhere." 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
Japan and Corea. 

Japan's War With China — Origin of the Japanese and Corean Race of People — What They 
May Accomplish for China- -Japan's Position to Russia — Possible War on this 
Account — Character of the Japanese — The Mikado — Superstitions of the People — 
Religious Beliefs and Legends — Literature and Poetry. 

SERIOUS as the war between China and Japan appeared to be 
at the time, and heavy as was the penalty paid by China it is 
apparent now that the war, while a victory for Japan, tanght 
the Chinese leaders and people some valuable lessons. Japan in 
itself, although having thousands of islands, is a very small state. 
It is regarded as one of the most interesting nations in the world. 
The Japanese have always sought Western culture. They have 
never lost their political independence. No foreign religion has 
ever placed them at the mercy of evangelists. There was a time 
when the Japanese sought to become part of the Chinese world of 
thought and culture, but were compelled to reject the same. It did 
not fit to the Japanese character. 

The Empire of the Mikado commands by sea all the highways 
leading toward Malaysia, Australia, Indo-China and the lands bor- 
dering on the Indian ocean and Pacific sea boards. Japan proper 
consists of four large islands and they are named : 

Yeso, or land of the barbarians. 

Hondo, or chief land. 

Sikok, or the four provinces. 

Kiu-siu, or the nine districts. 

The tributary islands number at least 3,850. Hondo is the 
chief land. A name frequentfy given the entire Japanese archipel- 
ago is " Land of the Rising Sun." The Japanese call the Empire 
Ji-pon-kweh. Marco Polo called it Zipang. The Malays gave it 
the same title and the Europeans transformed that into Japan. 
The corresponding native term to Japan is Nippon. The original 
Japanese form was Nit-pon, meaning the land of the Rising Sun. 

the Orient, from Nit, sun, and pon, origin. The word was in this 

503 



504 JAPAN AND COREA. 

form adopted about the seventh century of the Christian era by the 
Japanese who soon assimilated the T to the P, hence Nip-pon, Nip- 
hon and even Nif-hon. But in Japan the T was first dropped, 
whence Ni-pon, or Ni-pen and the initial N through Mongolian 
influence was afterwards changed to J. Hence Ji-pen, the form 
current in the time of Marco Polo, whose Venetian Zipang derives 
directly from it and is the parent of all European varieties of the 
word Japan. This word was, as stated, from the first, applied to 
the whole archipelago and not exclusively to the large island for 
which the Japanese had no general name until that of Hondo, that 
is, origin, or main division, was introduced. 

WHEN FIRST DISCOVERED. 

Portuguese adventurers first reached Japan in 1543 when they 
were driven by a storm to the island of Tanega. They were cor- 
dially received and as a result commercial relations were established 
and many of the native women were married by the navigators. 
Shortly afterwards the missionaries came and this led to trouble. 
Religious wars broke out before the end of the sixteenth century 
and in time the Christians were expelled or massacred. The coun- 
try was then closed to all foreigners but the Dutch, who were 
allowed to retain a factory which they had near Nagasaki on the 
condition that they would spit or trample upon the cross. 

The Dutch made good use of the ground left to them and 
studied the natural history of the country and the manners of its 
inhabitants and reproduced these in works that are now .historically 
famous. By the eighteenth century geographic works published 
by the natives themselves revealed that they already felt European 
influences. The Japanese at this time began to give travelers and 
explorers to the world. Mamiya-Rinzo surveyed the coast of 
Manchuria and by sailing through the strait between Sakhalin and 
Siberia proved Sakhalin to be an island. In the early part of this 
century while a noted Russian traveler was a prisoner in Japan the 
educated men of the Empire came to him and acquired from him 
the art of calculating longitudes directly by observation of the 
stars, and solar and lunar distances. 



JAPAN AND COREA. 505 

From their first contact with Europeans the Japanese gave evi- 
dence of possessing great powers for study, strong imitative facul- 
ties and an adroitness in trading or even in diplomatic matters, 
that made them respected by all foreigners. As to the inhabitants 
themselves, with the exception of those on a few of the islands, 
" the present population of Japan is one of the most homogeneous 
on the globe. The natives have everywhere the same speech and 
customs with the full consciousness of their nationality. They 
possess what the Chinese lack." Racially the present people of 
Japan are spoken of as Japanese, but their ancestors were known 
as " eastern barbarians " and bore names such as Yemisi or Mayo- 
gin, meaning " Hairy men." The Ainos who at one time occupied 
the islands, bore a name which simply meant man. Like the Chi- 
nese the Ainos held that they were the center of the universe and 
one of their old songs runs : 

" Gods of the sea open your divine eyes. 
Wherever your eyes fall, there echoes the Aino speech." 

PEASANTS AND ARISTOCRACY. 

Another authority on the meaning of the word Ainos states 
that it refers to a dog and a tradition ascribes the origin of the race 
to a dog and a Japanese princess banished to the north. The dom- 
inant people of Japan are described as a mixed race in which the 
Aino element is now but slightly represented. It is believed that 
this mixed race came from the Mongol races of Siberia and eastern 
Asia. According to one legend the ancestors of the Japanese race 
were three hundred young men and women sent across the seas by 
a Chinese Emperor in search of the " Flower of Immortality." Still 
the matter is yet in doubt as to where the present Japanese came 
from. It is unquestioned that the Chinese literature and Chinese 
system of government have had an important influence upon them. 

The race has its people of two distinct types — the peasants 
and the aristocracy. The peasant has the broad, flat face, crushed 
nose, low brow, prominent cheek bones, halt-opened mouth, and small 
black and oblique eyes. The nobles are distinguished by their 
lighter complexion, less vigorous body, elevated brow and oval face. 



506 JAPAN AND COREA. 

To whatever class they may belong all Japanese are of low 
stature, averaging from five feet to five feet two inches in the men 
and under five feet in the women. The Japanese coolie will carry 
a heavy load at a rapid pace for hours together, without stopping 
even when ascending steep mountain passes. Attendants on foot 
keep up with their master's horse crossing the country at full 
gallop, and the acrobats are unsurpassed in strength and activity 
by those of the West. 

The prevailing malady in Japan is anemia, which sooner or 
later affects four-fifths of the whole population and which is attrib- 
uted to the almost exclusive use of rice and vegetables possessing 
little albumen and fat. Small-pox is also prevalent and much 
dreaded, although the Chinese methods of inoculation have long 
been known. Ever since the introduction of vaccination by Sie- 
bold at the beginning of the nineteenth century this scourge still 
continues to leave its mark on the features of about two-thirds of 
the people. 

Notwithstanding their cleanliness, the natives are affected by 
the taint of leprosy in every part of the archipelago, and especially 
in the Tokio district. Diseases of the chest and lungs are almost 
as fatal as in Europe ; but scarlatina, erysipelas, and many other 
Western maladies are unknown in the archipelago. 

RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. 

As in China, three cults co-exist side by side, and the same 
individual may conform to all three. The oldest of these is the 
national religion known as Sintoism, or the " Way of the Genii." 
The Koziki, or " History of the Things of Antiquity," which em- 
bodies the Sinto teachings is the oldest and most remarkable work 
in Japanese literature. The Confucian system is little more than 
a moral code. But Buddism is at once a metaphysical and relig- 
ious system, which consoles its votaries for the miseries of the 
present life and holds out prospects of happiness or repose in the 
after state. 

Like the Chinese and Corean aborigines, the first divinities of 
the Japanese were the forces of nature, with which they associated 



JAPAN AND COREA. 507 

the souls of the dead and the eight million aerial and terrestial 
genii. To live at peace with these countless hosts, endless conjur- 
ings and offerings were necessary. This forms the Sinto religion. 
The rites of this simple religion asks of its followers nothing but 
purity of soul and thought. 

The most sacred shrines of this worship are the two temples 
of the Sun Goddess and the Goddess of Food, which are situated 
about ninety miles southeast of Kioto, in the province of Ise. 
Thousands of pilgrims from every part of the Empire annually 
visit these temples, and no artisan considers it possible to gain a 
livelihood, unless he has invoked the protection of these goddesses 
by performing a pilgrimage at least once. 

Buddhism was introduced into Japan about the middle of the 
sixth century, and still has its sway over a large part of the inhab- 
itants, notwithstanding the suppression of some monasteries, and 
the forcible transformation of numerous temples into Sinto sanctu- 
aries. When first introduced it attracted the people by its pompous 
ceremonial, by the dogmas of transmigration and final redemption 
and by the variety of its gods and saints. 

NUMEROUS RELIGIOUS SECTS. 

Since its establishment Japanese Buddhism has become divided 
into numerous sects, some claiming to have preserved the old faith 
in its purity, while others have become modified by the sanction of 
new revelations. In 1875 the Buddhists possessed 88,000 temples, 
while the Sintoists possessed over 120,000, many of which were 
used in common by both religions, a bamboo screen separating the 
two altars. 

The Shin-shui, or " New Sect," founded by Shinran-shonin in 
the thirteenth century, ranks next in importance and influence. It 
rejects all Buddhas and deities except Amida Buddha, to whom 
alone prayers and invocations are addressed. The influence of this 
sect in every part of the Empire has been illustrated in connection 
with the restoration of one of the great temples in Kioto. Women 
and young girls from the various provinces are said to have cut 
off their hair, and twisted it into long cords to drag cedar trunks 



508 



JAPAN AND COREA. 



to the capital, where these trees were hewn into pillars for the 
temple. 

Christianity was first introduced in japan by Francis Xavier 
in 1549. Within 30 years of the first conversions and the founda- 
tion of a Jesnit seminary at Fnnai the Christian communities 
numbered 150,000 members. In 1587 a decree was issued banish- 
ing the Jesuits. Nevertheless, the new religion continued to be 
tolerated until the year 16 14, when some repressive measures were 




COURT OF LOVE. 

taken and its practice finally interdicted. Christianity is at present 
allowed to be preached in the treaty ports and the government even 
sanctioned the conversion of Buddha temples into Protestant or 
Catholic chapels. 

Since the eighth century there has been a literary development 
in Japan, which if not " luminous " may be described as " volum- 
inous." Poetry, the drama, history and the natural sciences have 
been cultivated, and the intellectual evolution of Japan may be said 



JAPAN AND COREA. 509 

to have run in parallel lines with that of the West. In the mon- 
asteries the old manuscripts were copied, chronicles compiled, 
theological and metaphysical treatises composed, while the " Courts 
of Love" were held during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in 
the castles of the feudal lords, where the lettered warriors and 
strolling minstrels wrote their romances of chivalry, and recited 
their lyrical songs just as in Europe. 

The period of literary Renaissance coincides with the seven- 
teenth century, after which comes the age of the enx^clopsedists. 
At present journalism and political writings are swelling the bulk 
of the national literature, which has been more or less affected by 
European influences since the middle of the eighteenth century, 
when secret societies were formed for the translation of Dutch works. 

"LAND OF THE MORNING CALM." 

Corea, or as it is known in the language of the country, Cho 
Son, " Land of the Morning Calm," is very dear to her sons, and 
like the Swiss people, they die of homesickness if long absent from 
their beloved hills. One of the peculiar traits of a Corean is the 
fact that the moment he starts to ascend a hill he begins to either 
whistle or sing. If he carries with him one of the flutes of the 
country he will perform a few minor notes without much regard to 
harmony, but he may find in his music a charm that is lost to 
European ears. 

It must not be forgotten that it was a Corean general who in a 
period of war invented the iron horseshoe. Since then, a lapse of 
four centuries, the houses of many Coreans are built in the 
shape of a horseshoe. Their method of naming the streets of their 
towns is more sentimental than practical. Blessing street, Happy 
street, Sunshine street and Virtuous street are the names th; t 
appeal with romantic force to the imagination. 

Customs in Corea become as absolute as laws when they are 
good, and their judgment in this respect is to be commended. 
Cousins are not permitted to marry. Children are named for both 
parents, taking a part of each name, thereby originating a new 
one. Wives who commit small misdemeanors are punished for 



510 JAPAN AND COREA. 

them by their husbands, but when the}^ commit a crime then the 
husband is punished as the responsible one. 

Corean literature is not very enticing, as it consists mainly of 
Chinese classics, the writings of Confucius, or stories of Buddha 
and amatory verses which when translated by the missionaries into 
decorous French lose what little merit they possess and are lost in 
commonplace. Love is a potent factor in the Corean homes, and 
although divorce is known there, it is looked upon as a misfortune 
and disgrace. The people are naturally virtuous, simple in their 
tastes, like children, and preferring by natural selection goodness 
to vice 

They have great reverence for bald heads, believing that they 
are tokens of wisdom, and that as the hair decreases the vigor of 
the understanding increases. Their superstitions are picturesque. 
For instance, when a new moon is expected they go out with torch- 
light processions to propitiate her and bring luck. 

Less groveling than the Chinese and less calculating than the 
Japanese, they enjoy life like children, and the number of holidays 
they crowd into a year is phenomenal. Among these is Butterfly 
holiday, Flower holiday and Fruit holiday. The men have enter- 
tainments called one-dish parties, where women are not invited, 
and each takes his own refreshments. The women of the nobility 
are veiled and go about in two-men chairs, but one sees them peep- 
ing at passing Europeans. The ordinary Corean housewife goes 
unveiled. 

AMERICANS WHO FOUGHT FOR CHINA. 

In the stirring events of the past three years, events that have 
made and unmade nations, and in which heroes have become com- 
mon, it is not surprising that the name of Philo McGifhn, the 
American naval officer who commanded a Chinese battleship in the 
war with Japan, should have slipped from the memory of many of 
his countrymen. 

But now that the Chinese question is uppermost in the troubled 
arena of international politics, the brief story of the life of the hero 
of the Yalu, the American sailor who fought so valiantly for China, 



JAPAN AND COREA. 51J 

is worth telling. Until the United States war with Spain, Captain 
McGiffin enjoyed the distinction of being the only man of Amen- 




A TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION TO BRING LUCK 

can or European blood who ever commanded a modern war-ship in 
battle. Not only this, he has been recognized as one of the bravest 



512 JAPAN AND COREA. 

men of our time. His life is an illustration of Disraeli's saying: 
u Adventures are for the adventurous." 

Captain Philo McGiffin was born in Washington, the county 
seat of Washington County, in western Pennsylvania, where is 
located the famous Washington and Jefferson College, that played 
such a vital part in the early history of the country west of the 
Allegheny mountains. His great-grandfather was a Scotchman by 
birth, who settled in America previous to the Revolutionary war, 
and took part in that strife on the side of the colonists. After the 
surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, this soldier of liberty 
settled in western Pennsylvania. 

THE HERO OF YALU. 

McGiffin 's father was a classmate of James G. Blaine at 
Washington and Jefferson College, was a soldier in the Mexican 
war and led the first company from Washington County into the 
Civil war. Philo McGiffin was born December 13, i860, in Wash- 
ington, his father at that time being Sheriff of Washington County. 
It is said that as a child he was dreamy and imaginative, and would 
lie for hours curled up on a rug reading or listening to his sister's 
music. The ambition of his early boyhood was to " travel, to see 
the sea, to be in a war," which ambition was later realized to his 
satisfaction. 

In 1875 ne entered Washington and Jefferson College, and two 
years later received an appointment to Annapolis. While at An- 
napolis he saved two children from death by fire, for which act he 
received the thanks of the Secretary of the Navy. He was gradu- 
ated from Annapolis in 1882, and went on the customary two years' 
cruise, shipping on the United States ship, Hartford, to Callao, Peru, 
and was there transferred, in the summer of 1883, to the Pensacola. 
At the expiration of this two years' trial voyage he appeared for 
the final examination, which he passed successfully. 

While he was on his preparatory cruise a bill was passed in 
Congress authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to reduce the force. 
McGiffin, with others, was declared to be a surplus graduate and 
was honorably discharged from the navy with a year's sea pay. 






JAPAN AND COREA. 513 

This political measure deprived the navy of the United States of 
one of the bravest men that ever lived and gave to the service of 
the Chinese the most intrepid commander in their naval service. 

There being little chance of future employment in the sea ser- 
vice of his own country, McGiffin traveled about the world, and 
chanced to be in China at the outbreak of the Franco-China war. 
He at once presented himself at the entrance of Li Hung Chang's 
palace. Not being acquainted with the language, he threw aside 
the guard and forced his way into the presence of the Viceroy, who 
admired the American's pluck. 

He passed the necessary examination to enter the Chinese ser- 
vice and was put in command of a gunboat. In the naval battle of 
Yanti Se he captured the only gunboat that the French lost during 
the Franco-Chinese war. At the close of the war he was made a 
teacher in the naval college at Tien-Tsin, which, he used to jest- 
ingly remark, was appropriately situated four miles from the near- 
est water. In 1887, he established the naval academy at Wei Hai 
Wei and was put at its head. In the following year he surveyed 
the coast of Corea and drew plans for the improvement and increase 
of the Chinese navy. 

COULD NOT DESERT THEM. 

When the war between Chma and Japan was declared, Captain 
McGiffin was on his way to America, enjoying a leave of absence, 
as his health had been failing ; but he promptly gave back his 
papers to the Chinese government, offered his services, and was 
given command of the Chen Yuen. In a letter to his relatives, 
Captain McGiffin gave his reasons for joining the Chinese service : 

" And if I don't return, remember it is a point of honor for me 
to have joined ; after ten years of service, and all their goodness to 
me, it would be mean in me to desert them now. I have been ap- 
pointed to command the sister ship of the flagship. The Japs are 
very confident that they can whip us ; of course they can not in the 
end, but at first I prefer not to say. My ship is going to cause a lot 
of damage to Japan, and she may come out on top. I am going to 
whip or be killed ; and you must not think very much if I am 
33 



514 JAPAN AND CORE A. 

killed. It is the best way to die. Our cause is right, and, any- 
how, I am for China." 

Shortly after this letter was written the great battle of the 
Yalu river was fought September 17, 1894, and which resulted so 
disastrously to the Chinese. When the first shell from the enemy 
whizzed over the bridge of the Chen Yuen, Captain McGifHn noticed 
that his navigating lieutenant turned very pale. A few more shots 
and the officer disappeared from his position. Soon after the fight 
began something went wrong with the training engine on one of 
the turrets, and Captain McGiffin went down to the armored place 
below to set it to rights. As he was getting down some one tugged 
at his leg, saying : 

" There is no room for any more here. You must hide some- 
where else." 

He looked down and saw his navigating lieutenant, and a dozen 
more terrified men in hiding. What Captain McGiffin said and 
did is written in gold leaf in the Chinese records of that battle. It 
was a terrific fight and throughout the Chen Yuen was in the thick 
of it. Four of the Japanese men-of-war concentrated their fire on 
her and she was raked from stem to stern. Calvin Dill Wilson, 
McGiffin's intimate friend gives this graphic description of the 
American's heroic part in the fight : 

CAPT. McGIFFIN'S HEROIC FIGHT. 

"At this juncture a fire broke out in the superstructure over 
the forecastle. McGiffin ordered a line of hose to be run out, but 
the men refused to go unless an officer led them. This the Captain 
offered to do, and a number of men volunteerea to follow. But 
before they started to put out the fire he ordered the head gunner 
at the starboard battery to stop firing on the port side, and to turn 
his guns right ahead ; otherwise they would fire upon their own 
men. When they reached the forecastle the shot of the enemy's 
guns struck one man after another. 

" The Captain was bending over, pulling up a hose, when a 
shot passed between his legs, burning both wrists and cutting away 
the tail of his coat ; a shell hit the tower and as it burst a piece 



JAPAN AND COREA. 515 

struck him. Shortly after he had gone toward the forecastle the 
head gunner to whom he had given the order to shift the guns was 
killed ; and the man who took his place, not knowing that the 
Captain and men had gone forward, kept the guns directed to port 
and fired one. The explosion blew them all off their legs and 
killed several. 

IN A DANGEROUS POSITION. 

" McGifhn at the same time was gashed by a sho!: from the 
enemy that rendered him unconscious. He fell upon the hose, that 
had been cut by a ball, and the spurting water revived him. When 
he looked up he saw that he was directly in front of the other star- 
board gun, with his head in line of the fire. He watched the turn- 
ing of the gun for a second or two, and realizing his danger, threw 
himself over the side of the superstructure to the deck below, a 
depth of eight feet. He fell upon his chest, with blood gushing 
from his mouth. 

"He managed to get around into the superstructure, and asked 
two of the men to carry him further aft, as he could not walk. To 
have seen McGifhn on his ship during that fight would have been 
a sight to remember forever. That dauntless spirit rode the forces 
of battle as if he were a steed. He was the soul of his ship, the 
spirit of the storm, the Prospero with his magic wand. His body 
was shattered, but his mind kept awake. 

" He was so near the first gun when it exploded that his cloth- 
ing was set on fire, his eyebrows and hair singed, his eyes injured, 
and although his ears were rammed as tightly as possible with cot- 
ton, the drums of both were permanently injured by the explosion. 
He was unconscious for a time, but quickly as he recovered he was 
on his feet and giving orders." 

He received forty wounds, many of them caused by splinters 
of wood ; he, with his own hands, extracted a large splinter from 
his hip, and holding his eyelids open with his finger, he navigated 
his ship, which had been struck 400 times, safely to its dock, skill- 
fully evading capture, the Chen Yuen being the only one of the 
Chinese vessels that came out of the fight with that credit. 

Lord Beresford declared that the daring of Captain McGifiin, as 



51 g JAPAN AND COREA. 

the had commanded a modem war-ship m actual batt .. He s.,d 

,„ ■£ s . s «, s ,om r «- ™i *£*; -r, 

'""After a protracted s,a, in tl.e hospital Captain MeGiffin 
- T£^t%!Z5S* b. g a„ ro tail nin. rapidly 

whose dragon he fought so nobly. 

JAPAN S PRESENT POSITION. 

« In any uestion that concerns China, Japan must have a part » 
in any quesuo resident f the International Institute 

TOW I. ^r -Japan" -he ne f W e^ina, *■ - 

tions, this is her right, lop be 

smi srftisas - -^- te inde - 

^^•end of China might he the beginning of the downfall of 
Japan The question of the 'open door' was hardly thought of 



JAPAN AND COREA. 517 

when Japan vanquished China on sea and land, but when Russia, 
France and Germany proceeded to interfere in the result, and later 
on to make demands for privileges for themselves, which China 
could not resist, then Japan reversed her course and sided with 
China. » 

General J. H. Wilson, Chaffee's first aide, has been quoted as 
saying : 

"Japan has the necessary power close to the scene of action. 
Japan could settle the Chinese muddle inside a fortnight were she 
allowed liberty to act. Jealousies between the Powers stay her 
hand. All the world knows that it is Russia who refuses to permit 
Japan to put down the anarchy. " 

"Japan wants Corea," writes another authority. "If she could 
have a freer hand there she would have long ago thrown a great 
army into China. Great Britain wants Japan to have Corea. 
Japan wants it for territorial aggrandizement. Great Britain 
wants her to have it as a part of her general plan to everywhere 
embarrass Russia and keep her from the sea. Russia can never 
consent to the annexation of Corea by Japan. It must remain a 
part of China, go to Russia or be independent under Russian pro- 
tection. Japan, permanently lodged in Corea would be a constant 
menace to the Siberian Railroad, and render it of little practical 
value in case of war." 

Thus Japan stands in the breach between Russia and Great 
Britain. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Ancient and Modern Chinese Schools. 

Breaking Up Old Systems — The Strength of the School Teacher — Patience of the School 
Children — Courses of Study — Difficulties of Christian Teachers — Obstacles to be 
Overcome — Character of the Literature — A Race Famous for Poetry — Examples of 
Early Poems— Prose Works. 

COMMANDER Harvie Webster of the United States Navy, in 
a recent article on China and her people calls attention to a 
characteristic of the race too often ignored by writers. He 
says: " A characteristic of the Chinaman is his desire for educa- 
tion. So thoroughly imbued is the national spirit with the thirst 
for knowledge that it is safe to say that no other people are so gen- 
erally and so well educated as the Chinese. Every boy is com- 
pelled by law to attend school a certain period of the year. Among 
the poorest classes, where the struggle for existence is fierce and 
unrelenting, scarcely an individual can be found who cannot read 
and write. And this, too, not haltingly and with difficulty, but 
freely, and, so far as can be understood by an observer, accurately 
and understandingly. 

" The education of the Chinese boy begins as soon as he can 
think, and is pursued relentlessly through boyhood and until, by 
marriage or demands of business he seeks a new path for himself. 
The system of education is based primarily upon thoroughness, 
and, as time is not regarded as possessing any value, it can be 
understood that each branch of study is carried to its ultimate. 
The study of the Chinese classics is of the first importance ; music, 
natural philosophy, astronomy, geography, botany and engineering 
all in turn receive careful attention, and because the end proposed 
to their minds is different from the Western code, it does not fol- 
low that the range of study or the intricacies of subjects are in any 
degree less than with our students. In fact I am sure that in sub- 
tlety of analysis, in pursuit of the formulated idea to the ultimate 
and logical conclusion the Chinese student is far superior to his 
brother of any nation," 
518 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 519 

THE OLD-TIME SCHOOL. 

Schools existed in China certainly 1,500 years before the 
Christian era. The term " school," as then applied to the Chinese 
tongue, did not have precisely the same meaning now given it. It 
meant then a place in which the Chinese children received educa- 
tion in a moral code, and also their first knowledge of the legend- 
ary origin of their race. Narrow as were the channels in which 
the pupils moved along their educational course, the effect was for 
the good. The Chinese pupil of the centuries before Christ 
learned in his tenderest years that the schoolmaster was nearly as 
important a personage in the land as the Emperor, and that he 
enjoyed the special protection of the Emperor. He further learned 
that the schoolmaster had due him more respect than he gave his 
own mother ; that he was only outranked in testimonials of respect 
to be paid by his father and the Emperor. 

The schoolmaster was in a large sense a priest. He came from 
a special class which before teaching gave years of study to the 
legends and the fables of the origin of the people and the begin- 
nings of their religious views. He studied the laws of virtue — 
those which forbade murder, stealing, cruelty to animals, lack of 
respect to parents, lack of respect to ancestors, ill-treatment of the 
aged ; the laws of love and death. The schoolmaster was an ora- 
cle to whom all looked for the words of wisdom. The great mass 
of the people were already too busily engaged in the struggle for 
existence to give that time to education which people of means 
possess, but no such excuse could be offered for the young. 

There is no evidence (in all the recorded Chinese law) of the 
government or the system of religion prevailing, failing to require 
that the children should be educated in such studies as it seemed 
best for them to pursue. They studied, in other words, what was 
needed, as they saw it, to improve the conditions surrounding 
them. The modern public school of the Western world pays little 
or no attention to the moral training of the children. That work 
is relegated to the home or the denominational church. The 
Chinaman, ages before the Western world had a school system in 
existence, insisted that the first education of the child should be 



520 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 

along the lines of the moral code ; that it was necessary that a 
child should know the laws of the virtues before it acquired wisdom 
in other directions. It is a curious fact that many modern educa- 
tors are now turning back to this system first instituted by the 
Chinese and the Hindu and arguing that modern education would 
be stronger in its purpose if the teaching of the moral code was 
brought into the public schools. 

MEN OF LETTERS IN CHINA. 

There are tens of thousands of Chinese students who try 
every year for the bachelor degrees awarded by the seats of learn- 
ing in the Celestial Empire. There are only a certain number of 
degrees awarded. Many men do not get the coveted letters until 
they are eighty or ninety years of age, and their final success is 
hailed with greater delight than if they obtained the honor in 
their youth. 

An official report states that at an autumnal examination in Foo- 
Chow there were nine candidates over eighty years of age, and two 
over ninety, and the examiners declared that these aged students 
sent essays the composition of which was good and the handwrit- 
ing firm and distinct. The Governor of Hunan has published a 
report concerning an examination in which thirteen candidates over 
eighty years of age and one over ninety went through the whole 
nine days ordeal, writing essays which were perfectly accurate in 
diction, and showed no signs of failing years. Another province, 
however, beat both these records by providing thirty-five competi- 
tors who were octogenarians and eighteen who were over ninety 
years of age. 

The majority of the students take the first degree at an early 
period, and if they throw up their studies at this point, they are 
looked down upon by their fellows. The Chinaman who starts life 
with the announcement that he means to be a learned man is 
expected to devote his life to study, and at each success to strive 
after a higher degree. 

As a rule, the majority of students who are octogenarians 
have obtained their bachelor degrees, and, in deference to public 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 521 

opinion, still strive after the next degree. If they continue to fail 
until they are old men they usually are awarded honorary degrees 
as some sort of consolation for their life study. It would, indeed, 
be a novelty at Oxford and Cambridge to see a grandfather, son 
and grandson sitting side by side in the same examination, but in 
China such a sight is by no means uncommon. 

The learned Chinaman who is made an official works harder than 
in the days when he was striving for his degree, and, as far as actual 
labor is concerned, he would be better off if he waited for his intel- 
lectual triumph until he became an octogenarian. It should not, 
however, be imagined that the learned Chinese Bachelors of Art 
and officials are alone to be ranked as hard workers. The mer- 
chants and laborers toil much longer hours than the same workers 
in our own land. 

In comparing the educational system of China with that of 
America Minister Wu Ting Fang says : 

" I am a strong believer in education, and one of the things 
in America that impresses me most favorably is the schools. 
China is deficient in that respect ; but I am happy to say that there 
are beginning to be signs of improvement in our school system. 
Our method of teaching has been sadly at fault in the past, and 
Christian teachers have had hard battles to fight and many difficul- 
ties to overcome. After I had been five years at school, as a boy, 
I could read very well and could repeat many volumes of the 
classics by heart, but I didn't understand what I read. It ought 
to have been explained as we went along, but it never was. 

" The written language of the Chinese is so entirely different 
from the one spoken that the ability to read intelligently is a much 
greater accomplishment in China than it is here. A sensible method 
of instruction would, of course, greatly simplify the difficulties. 

LESSONS IN POLITENESS LACKING. 

" I have visited American schools with great pleasure, and I 
must praise the admirable way in which children are taught in 
this country. The kindergarten idea seems to me especially fine. 
It cannot help but be of great benefit also to have classes in drill 



522 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 

ing, carpentry and sketching for boys ; in cooking and sewing for 
girls. Eyes, ears, hands and mind are all trained. 

" Only one thing is lacking ; that is, lessons in politeness. 
Indeed, the children seem to be deficient from the standpoint of 
manners. Why couldn't a certain inflexible rnle of politeness be 
imposed npon them, toward their superiors at least, just as it is on 
men in the army ? " 

It is true that China has been overshadowed and left behind 
by Western powers, and the recognition of this fact is the starting 
point of the Emperor's reform policy. " He conceives the remedy 
to be an infusion of new life into the education of the people ; a 
supercession of the wonderful system of intellectual training, per- 
fected centuries ago, which forms all minds alike on the great 
Chinese Classics, ' the best that has been thought and said ' in the 
Celestial Land," writes Charles Johnson. " Chemistry, physics, 
engineering and military science are to take the place of essays 
and poems exquisiteh* fashioned after ancient models, now the sole 
test of talent throughout the Empire, and perfection in which is 
the royal road to fame and fortune." 

CHINESE PUBLICATIONS. 

In 1868 the Chinese government established a bureau in the 
arsenal of Kiangnan, for the purpose of publishing Chinese editions 
of the chief European scientific works. It has also founded in 
Pekin the Tungwen Kwan, an administrative college, where Eng- 
lish, French, Russian and German are taught ; physics, chemistry, 
medicine, physiology, astronomy and other branches are intrusted 
to foreign professors, assisted by native tutors. Most of the courses 
are conducted in English, and this college which had about one 
hundred students in 1876, now supplies a portion of the officials 
engaged in the administration of the Empire. 

The largest encyclopedia in the world was compiled by the 
Chinese in the reign of the Emperor Yunglo-ta-tien 1403. This 
volume consisted of twenty-two thousand books and was a complete 
compendium of knowledge, but it was never published, and the 
books now existing in manuscript are imperfect, but have a place 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 523 

of honor in the imperial library. Four hundred years later the 
Emperor of the present dynasty set his scholars to work to pro- 
duce a similar set of volumes. He gave them the headings him- 
self to the number of 6,109, and his learned writers grew old and 
died in compiling the five thousand volumes, which consumed in 
their production forty years of skilled labor. 

They were finally printed in an edition limited to one hundred 
copies. One complete copy is in the British Museum. It is only 
natural that the Chinese with their love of antiquity should prefer 
the first work with its imperfect knowledge to the later one with 
its vast accumulation of new inventions and enterprises. Learn- 
ing in a literary sense is not original in China. They borrowed 
their knowledge from the Buddhist missionaries, who aroused their 
interest when they translated the Sanskrit into Chinese. 

Once having learned a new theory, science or philosophy, the 
Chinese never forget, for the reason that they find it much easier 
to remember an old cult than to form a new one. Their patience 
is phenomenal, but they are slow to originate thoughts and ideas 
of their own. 

TOPOGRAPHICAL WORKS. 

The topographical works of China are scarcely to be equalled 
in the literature of any other country for breadth of scope and for 
minuteness of detail. The most comprehensive of these is the Ta 
Tsing yih tung chi, which forms a geography of the Empire, 
together with the Chinese districts of Mongolia and Manchuria, as 
existing since the accession of the present dynasty. This work 
consists of 356 books, and was published at Pekin in the year 1744. 
It deals with each province, each prefecture, each department and 
each district separately ; and all are treated under the following 
twenty-four headings : — 

1. A table of the changes which the district to be described has 
undergone during the successive dynasties from the Han down- 
wards ; 2. Maps ; 3. A list of the distances from the various places 
to the chief towns of the department ; 4. Its astronomical bearings; 
5. Its ancient geography ; 6. Its geographical position and its nota- 



524 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 

ble localities ; 7. The manners and customs of the inhabitants ; 8. 
Its fortified places ; 9. Its colleges and schools ; 10. The census of 
the population ; 11. Taxes on land; 12. Its mountains and rivers ; 
13. Its antiquities; 14. Its means of defence; 15. Its bridges; 16. 
Its dikes; 17. Its tombs and monuments; 18. Its temples and 
ancestral halls ; 19. Its Buddhist and Taoist temples ; 20. Patriotic 
native officials from the time of the Han dynasty downwards; 21. 
Celebrated men and things 522. Illustrious women ; 23. Saints and 
immortals ; 24. The products of the soil. 

LITERARY TALENT. 

In addition to this the water-ways of China, as well as the riv- 
ers of Manchuria, Mongolia and Tibet, have all been accurately 
surveyed and minutely described. Numerous biographies and 
works on the sciences, on education, on jurisprudence have been 
published from time to time and are still being issued from the 
presses in China. 

In the Celestial Empire as elsewhere, the first development of 
literary talent is found in poetry. The songs and ballads which 
form the Book of Odes, date back a long time before the production 
of any works of which we have knowledge. In those early days } 
before China was China, the then Empire was divided into a num- 
ber of feudal states, all of which acknowledged fealty to the ruling 
sovereign, at whose court were a number of music-masters and his- 
toriographers, whose duty it was to collect and set to music the 
songs of the people, and to preserve the historical records of the 
Empire. These music-masters, or princes, were in the habit of 
meeting the king at certain places to take orders for the future and 
to receive credit or blame for past conduct. 

On such occasions the princes would carry with them the bal- 
lads and songs collected and present them to their superior at the 
royal court. These he would collect and classify. Thus it hap- 
pened that at the time of Confucius there existed an official collec- 
tion of some 3,000 songs. On these the sage set to work and, in 
the words of the historian Sze-ma Tseen, " he rejected those which 
were only repetitions of others, and selected those which would be 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 525 

serviceable for the inculcation of propriety and righteousness. " 
He arranged these to the number of 311 under four heads — 
"National Airs," the "Lesser" and the "Greater Eulogies," and 
the "Song of Homage" — and gave the collection the title of She 
king, or Book of Odes. 

CHARACTER OF POETRY. 

Through most of them there breathes a quiet calm and patri- 
archal simplicity of life and thought. There are few sounds of 
war, little tumult of the camp, but, on the contrary, a spirit of 
peaceful repose, of family love, and of religious feeling. Occasion- 
ally one meets with traces of scenes of revelry bordering on licen- 
tiousness ; but their idyllic surroundings, and the absence of all 
violence, deprive the most dissolute descriptions of all vulgarity 
and coarseness. 

The wailing complaints of misrule and tyranny under which 
the subjects of certain princes groan are more serious, but even 
here there are no signs of insubordination or tumult ; the remedy 
which suggests itself to a people patient and long-suffering to a 
degree is to emigrate beyond the reach of the tyrant, not to rise in 
rebellion against him. For instance, in the following lines the 
writer begs his friends to fly with him from the oppression and 
misery prevailing in his native state, which he likens to the north 
wind and thickly falling snow : 

" Cold blows the North wind ; 
Thickly falls the snow. 
Oh come all ye that love me, 
Let's join hands and go. 
Can we any longer stay, 
Victims to this dire dismay ? " 

Foxes and crows were looked upon as creatures of evil omen, 
and so, playing to his imagination, he imparts the information that 
the only variations noticeable in the monotony of their distress were 
these prognostics of future evil : 



526 ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS 

" Nought red is seen but foxes, 

Nor aught else black but crows, 
Oh come all ye that love me, 
Let's fly before our foes. 
Can we any longer stay, 
Victims to this dire dismay ? " 

The following song is intended to depict a rural scene, in 
which an industrious wife impresses on her husband the necessity 
of early rising, and encourages him to make virtuous and respect- 
able acquaintances : 

" 'Get up husband, here's the day ! ' 
'Not yet wife, the dawn's still grey. 
'Get up sir, and on the right 
See the morning star shines bright. 
Shake off slumber and prepare 
Ducks and geese to shoot and snare. 

" ' All your darts and line may kill, 
I will dress for you with skill. 
Thus, a blithesome hour we'll pass, 
Brightened by a cheerful glass ; 
While your lute its aid imparts 
To gratify and soothe our hearts. 

" ' On all whom you may wish to know 
I'll girdle ornaments bestow ; 
And girdle ornaments I'll send 
To any one who calls you friend ; 
With him whose love for you's abiding 
My girdle ornaments dividing.' " 

I MODERN POETRY. 

Such is the poetry of the Book of Odes. The Chinese say 
this poetry may be likened to its roots, that during the Han and 
Wei dynasties it burst into foliage, and that during the Tang dy- 
nasty (620-907) it came into full bloom. The change that came 
over it after the time of Confucius is very marked. Instead of the 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 527 

peaceful odes of his day one finds pieces reflecting the unsettled 
condition of political and social affairs. Songs breathing fire and 
sword, mingled with wild fancies, the off-spring of Taoist teaching, 
have taken the place of the domestic ballads of the Book of Odes. 
As a specimen of the poetry of this period the following " Lament 
of a Soldier on a Campaign," by Sun Tsze-king, of the Wei dynasty, 
is quoted ; 

" On the hilly way blows the morning breeze ; the Autumn shrubs 

are veiled in mist and rain. 
The whole city escorts us far on our way, providing us with 

rations for a thousand li (miles). 
Their very worst have the three Fates done. Ah me ! how can 

I be saved ? There is nought more bitter than an early 

death. Do not the gods desire to gain perpetual youth ? 

" As Sorrow and Happiness, so are Fortune and Misfortune inter- 
mingled. Heaven and Earth are the moulds in which we 
are formed, and in them is there nothing which does not bear 
significance. 

Far into the future looks the sage, early striving to avert calamity. 
But who can examine his own heart, scrutinize it by the 
light of heaven, regulate it for his present life, and preserve 
it for the old age which is to come ? 

Longer grows the distance from what I have left behind me ; my 
trouble is greater than I can bear." 

THE THEATRE. 

The theatre is in China as it was in Greece, national and re- 
ligious. It is under the direct control of the law, and is closed by 
imperial edict during all periods of public mourning, while at the 
same time it plays a prominent part at the yearly religious festivals. 
To give some idea of the substance and plot of a Chinese drama an 
abstract from a play from Sir John Davis' China is quoted, which 
he has translated and published under the title " The Heir in Old 
Age." This piece serves to illustrate the consequences which the 
Chinese attach to the due performance of the oblations at the tombs 



528 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 



of departed ancestors and also the true relation of the handmaid to 
the legitimate wife. The dramatis personae, he says, " made up 
entirely of the members of a family in the middle class of life, con- 
sisting of a rich old man, a handmaid, a nephew, his son-in-law, 
and his daughter." 

The old man having no son to console him in his old age and 
to perform the obsequies at his tomb, had, like the Jewish patri- 




INTERIOR OF A CHINESE THEATRE- 

arch, taken a handmaid, whose pregnancy is announced at the 
opening of the play. In order to obtain from Heaven a son instead 
of a daughter, he makes a sacrifice of sundry debts due to him, by 
burning the bonds. He then delivers over his affairs to his 
wife and his married daughter, dismissing his nephew (a deceased 
brother's son) with a hundred pieces of silver to seek his fortune, 
as he had been subjected at home to the persecution of the wife. 
This done, the old man sets out for his estates in the country, 



ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINESE SCHOOLS. 529 

recommending the mother of his expected son to the hninane treat- 
ment of the family and with the hope of receiving from them speedy 
congratulations on the birth of a son. The son-in-law now betrays 
to the daughter his disappointment at the expected birth, since, if 
it prove a girl, they shall lose half the family property, and if a 
son, the whole. His wife quiets him by a hint how easily the 
handmaid may be got rid of, and the old man persuaded that she 
had suddenly disappeared; and shortly afterwards both the son-in- 
law and the audience are left to infer that she had actually con- 
trived to make away with her. In the meantime the old man awaits 
the result in great anxiety ; his family appear in succession to 
console him for the loss of his hopes. 

SACRIFICES MADE BY THE HERO. 

In the bitterness of his disappointment he bursts into tears 
and expresses his suspicions of foul play. He then attributes his 
misfortune to his former thirst for gain, resolves to fast for seven 
days, and to bestow alms publicly at a neighboring temple, and to 
visit the tombs of his ancestors. On the old man's birthday, how- 
ever, to the boundless surprise and joy of the father, his daughter 
presents him with the lost handmaid and child, both of whom it 
appears had been secreted by the daughter unknown to her jealous 
husband, who supposed they were otherwise disposed. The play 
concludes with expressions of joy and gratitude that the venerable 
hero of the piece had obtained an " heir in his old age." 

Having considered the past and present literature of China, 
and casting a glance into the future, the prospect is not encourag- 
ing. Every subject within the scope of Chinese authors has been 
largely treated of and infinitely elaborated. The hope for the 
future of the literature is that afforded by the importation of 
foreign knowledge and experience. The time is coming when 
Chinese authors will think for themselves , and when that period 
arrives, they will learn to estimate their present literature at its 
true value. 
34 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Missionaries and Their Sufferings. 

First Introduction of Protestant Missions — Location of Catholic and Protestant Missions — ■ 
Resistance of the Chinese to Their Presence — Famous Massacres — Educational Ben- 
efit to the Chinese — Examples of Missionaries Killed — The Early Nestorians — The 
Famous Testimony Stone — The Future. 

MISSIONARIES in China from the United States, and native 
converts, are protected in teaching and practicing Christi- 
anity by the following clause in the treaty made with China 
in 1857, which treaty was negotiated by Dr. Peter Parker, minister 
plenipotentiary from the United States : 

" The principles of the Christian religion as expressed by the 
Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches are recognized as teach- 
ing men to do good and to do to others as they would have others 
do to them. Hereafter, those who quietly profess and teach these 
doctrines shall not be harassed or persecuted on account of their 
faith. Any person, whether citizen of the United States, or Chinese 
convert, who, according to these tenets, shall peaceably teach and 
practice the principles of Christianity, shall in no case be interfered 
with or molested." 

A similar treaty exists between England and China and other 
nations. Such treaties have little effect in protecting native con- 
verts from the fury of mobs, but they exert a powerful influence in 
restraining the natives from attacks upon the persons of mission- 
aries and other foreigners. They also stimulate government offi- 
cials to notify mobs that missionaries must not be harmed, and 
that if they are, punishment of the offenders will swiftly follow. 
Such notice is usually sufficient, for few Chinese mobs will per- 
1 sonally attack foreigners without the connivance, if not expressed 
permission, of officials. That they have resorted to such extreme 
acts in the present crisis, even to the murder of foreign officials, is 
the strongest evidence of the intensely bitter feeling against for- 
eigners. 

Since 1840 Protestant missions have had a standing in China. 
530 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 



531 



Catholic missions and priests have had at least five centuries of 
connection with the Empire. Naturally, the advocates of each 




NATIVE CHINESE MISSIONARY. 

religion disclaim all responsibility for the " anti-foreign " feeling 
now so strong in China. In off-set to their position are given the 



532 MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

views of the famous anthropologist, Prof. E. D. Starr, of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. He said of China's attitude during the last year - 

CONDITIONS BECAME INTOLERABLE. 

" The Dowager Empress is perfectly justified in her attitude 
toward the Christian missionaries and in taking any steps neces- 
sary to remove them from the country. The Boxers are a new 
organization formed to do away with conditions which have become 
intolerable. The party of the Empress will eventually succeed, 
because any scheme to deter her by a coalition of the powers, such 
as is at present proposed, would be absolutely impossible. 

" If the power passes out of China's hands it will drift into 
Russia's, because China and Russia are the only two nations who 
are to be reckoned with in the future. The only four immediate 
possibilities are : 

" i. The Dowager Empress will come out ahead in the present 
trouble. 

" 2. The so-called ruler may be restored under a coalition of 
foreign powers. 

"3. China may be divided up among the nations. 

" 4. Russia may seize the power. 

" Of these possibilities the only logical ones are the first and 
the fourth. 

" The third possibility — i. e., the partition of China among the 
foreign nations — would lead to the development of a warlike spirit 
in the Chinese themselves, and quicker than anything else to a 
united China and to her supremacy as a world power." 

In his article in the North American Review on the " Causes 
of Anti-Foreign Feeling in China," Geo. B. Smith says of the 
missionary: 

" Missions and missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, have 
added to the causes of antagonism in China. I am aware that this 
is denied by many of those who are interested in missions, but no 
one will question who is acquainted with the facts. It is not wise 
to argue from the nobility of the missionary motive to its ready 
appreciation by the Chinese people. 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 533 

" The motive, so apparent to us, is not equally apparent to 
them. They look at it through a medium of unfortunate accom- 
paniments of which we never think. Apart altogether from the 
offence to the national pride involved in undertaking to teach a 
faith claiming to be higher than their own, the whole missionary 
movement is associated with conquest, and its toleration is the 
result of a successful war. Noble, therefore, though the motives 
of the Christian Church are, its work is tainted by its association 
with force and conquest. 

" To thoughtful Chinese familiar with the history of their 
country, the presence of the missionary in every province, in 
country villages as well as in great cities, is a reminder of the 
national humiliation. There are exceptions ; there are among the 
leading classes men who look upon the Christian missionaries as 
China's best and only disinterested friends, and the number of such 
is increasing; but, for the present, at least, the vast majority do 
not think so. 

CHRISTIANITY OPPOSES ANCESTRAL WORSHIP. 

(( In religious matters the Chinese are the most tolerant of 
men ; but in their case Christianity is opposed to a practice which 
has prevailed from the very beginning of their history, on which 
they think the whole fabric of society is based. The opposition of 
Christianity to ancestral worship is what offends the Chinese most, 
for they consider it an attack on the most sacred of obligations, on 
the very foundation of society itself. Missionaries are aware of 
this, and most of them are scrupulously careful in speaking of it. 
I have heard many sermons and addresses by them in the seven- 
teen years which I have spent in China, but never one in which 
the ancestral cult was spoken of offensively. 

" But, while speaking tenderly, the opposition to it is there ; 
the churches have adopted toward it a position of uncompromising 
hostility, and the people know it. Here lies one of the chief 
sources of popular hostility to foreigners, and there is no way of 
avoiding it, unless the policy of toleration be adopted which was 
followed by the early Jesuits. But, as this was rejected by the 



534 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 




Catholics on command of the Pope, it is not likely to be adopted by 
them again, and it certainly never will be'by the Protestants. 

" Another canse of bitterness in connection with missionary 
work is found in the peculiar political status of the native converts, 
and the immunity from various exactions which the treaties guar- 
antee them. It is often asserted by opponents of missionaries that 
they are constantly interfering with the ordinary judicial processes 
of the country, saving their converts from the payment of taxes, and 

calling upon consuls and 
ministers, irrespective of 
treaty provisions, to in- 
terpose in their behalf. 

" All these charges 
are untrue, so far, at 
least, as Protestant mis- 
sionaries are concerned. 
Nevertheless, there are 
real sources of irritation 
in this connection which 
cannot be denied. The 
clauses of the treaties 
which guarantee religious 
liberty to Chinese con- 
verts have usually been 
interpreted to mean that 
they shall not be perse- 
cuted for religion's sake, and, specifically, that they shall not 
be compelled to contribute to the maintenance of idol temples, 
or toward paying the expenses of idol processions. Under these 
heads many cases are taken by the missionaries to consuls, who 
then refer them to the Chinese officials. 

Unfortunate^, it sometimes turns out on investigation that 
the cases do not come within the treaty limits at all, but are old $ 
troubles, or even new ones, which the Christian complainants per- 
suaded the missionary were instances of religious persecution. The 
embarrassment of such a discovery is painful — painful to the mis- 



J#?J^^- ; ' 



I ▼ 




F. M. KNOBEL. 
Netherlands Minister at Pekin. 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFEERINGS. 535 

sionary who was deceived, to the consul who took the case up, and 
to the Chinese magistrate who tried it. Worse than all is the effect 
in the village where the parties to the trouble reside, where 
the Christian is accused of trying to use his relation to the for- 
eigners to crush his neighbors. 

" Even when the cases are genuine, and the Christians are 
declared by the magistrate exempt from the exactions referred to 
there are two parties offended ; the people are angry because some 
of their neighbors are saved by foreign influence from a pressure 
which they themselves have to submit to, and which becomes 
heavier in proportion as the Christians are relieved from it ; and 
the magistrate is humiliated because at the demand of a foreign 
official he has to give judgment against the wishes of a majority of 
his own people. Here, therefore, is another widespread source of 
popular irritation. 

THOUGHT TO BE SPIES. 

" In addition to this, missionaries are often thought of as spies 
of their own governments ; and by some of those who are familiar 
with the history of other parts of Asia, the fate of India is feared 
for their country. Many a time have I been asked what my gov- 
ernment paid me for coming to China, and when I answered, 
' Nothing,' and showed that I had no connection with the govern- 
ment whatever, my reply was evidently received with no little 
incredulity. 

" Again, in the minds of many, the whole missionary move- 
ment is suspected because of the striking contrast between its pro- 
fessed aim and the conduct of some Christian governments toward 
China. And surely this cannot be wondered at. With Western 
missionaries preaching peace and Western governments practicing 
murder, it should not surprise us if the Chinese suspect the for- 
mer as much as they fear the latter. You cannot go to a people 
with the Bible in one hand and a bludgeon in the other, and expect 
that they will accept either cheerfully." 

Christianity was first introduced into China during the seventh 
century by the Nestorians. Besides the evidence of the native 



536 MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

records, there existed a rock inscription commemorating the entry 
of the Christian missionaries into China. This stone was discov- 
ered near Singan-fn in 1620, after which time it was frequently 
visited by Europeans, but was probably destroyed during the Tai- 
ping rebellion. It was seen in 1867 by Williamson, but had dis- 
appeared when Richthofen visited Shensi in 1872. According to 
the inscription on this stone the first Christian missionary's name 
was Opolun. 

Christianity spread rapidly, until about the middle of the ninth 
century, when it was exterminated from the Empire in accordance 
with an Imperial edict abolishing all foreign religions. The Roman 
church made two attempts to re-establish the Christian religion in 
the Empire — once during the thirteenth century, and again toward 
the close of the sixteenth century, but it was not until 1842 that 
the Protestant church manifested any zeal in its missionary work. 
Now missionaries have penetrated to nearly every province of 
China. 

Pekin may perhaps be called the center of Catholic missions 
and Shanghai the Protestant center. The field of the American 
Presbyterians, who have more workers in China than any other 
single denomination except the China Inland Mission, has been 
Shantung. The Baptists and others have pushed on to the more 
Western provinces. The Catholics have divided the country into 
five sections, one being allotted to each of the five orders — the 
Franciscans, the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Augustinians and 
the Lazarists. One thousand four hnndred and twenty-five is a 
fair estimate of the number of American and European mission- 
aries in the Empire. 

THE TIEN-TSIN MASSACRE. 

In 1870 the French officials residing in the city of Tien-Tsin 
became the objects of an intense hatred to the people. During the 
month of June a murderous mob broke out, and the French consul, 
vice-consul, interpreter and his wife, a Catholic priest, nine sisters 
of charity, a French merchant and his wife, and three Russians 
were brutally murdered. All the buildings belonging to the em- 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 537 

bassy were destroyed, and the atrocity was not ended as long as a 
trace of trie foreigners remained. 

It appears that the Chinese authorities were not responsible 
for the horrible outbreak. The Imperial government at once took 
measures to punish the local officials who were implicated in the 
massacre, and a special embassy was sent to France to express the 
regrets of the Emperor for the crime committed by his subjects. 

A MISSIONARY'S SAD FATE. 

In 1899 in the province of Sechuen a rebellion of 8,000 men, 
headed by Yu Man-tze, attempted to extirpate the Christians of the 
province. A Catholic priest was captured, and during the eight 
months of his captivity the Christians who fell into the hands of 
the mob were brought before him and murdered at his feet. Mis- 
sions were burned and Christian families murdered. It has been 
said that Yu Man-tze and his followers burned 4,000 houses and 
30 chapels ; that over 20,000 Catholics had been sent adrift. In 
other provinces missions were razed to the ground and families 
plundered and murdered. Foreigners in the midst of this up- 
heaval wrote : 

" The local officials are powerless to punish the offenders. " 
There is practically no guarantee for the safety of the lives and 
property of foreigners residing in the interior of China." 

In the province of Kiang-si one Chang made the following 
proclamation : 

" I, Chang, obeying the orders of Heaven to gather all the 
braves and heroes together, with a special view to seek revenge for 
the people, to drive away the foreign devils and to protect China, 
have assembled over 300 philosophical scholars, about 3,000 mili- 
tary officers and more than 30,000 brave soldiers." 

In one of China's remote provinces, John Brooks, a missionary, 
fell into the hands of the Boxers and was subjected to peculiar tor- 
tures. From the Orient news of his death and the details of his 
fatal encounter with Boxers in the village of Changechiatien have 
been received. 

" Mr. Brooks passed through this city about two and a half 



538 MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

years ago, having been sent out by the Anglican Mission to con- 
vert the Chinese of the wildest province. With his sister, Mrs. 
Brown, he went to Shantung. He located at P'ingyin, while she 
established her headquarters at Taianfu. They were separated by 
a distance of some 150 miles and saw little of each other. 

'' Mr. Brooks went to Taianfu just before Christmas to spend 
the holidays with his sister. They sat down together to a meal 
which was the nearest approach to an English dinner possible in 
that desolate foreign country, so many thousands of miles away 
from England. It being their last Christmas day in the Orient, 
they looked forward with delight to the time of a year later when 
they would be at home with their friends and loved ones. 

" It was the last Christmas the brother was to spend on earth. 
Unaware of the fate in store for him, he bade his sister an affection- 
ate farewell ; then set out on a donkey for his long and trying 
journey. About 10 o'clock the same morning he was passing 
through the village of Changchiatien. He had not proceeded far 
when there was a terrible commotion in the village and about thirty 
Chinese brandishing big knives and yelling like demons, came 
rushing toward him. 

TOOK REFUGE IN A TEMPLE. 

" Mr. Brooks realized that his only safety lay in flight, and he 
urged his animal into a faster pace, but the speed of the donkey 
was no match for that of the Boxers in pursuit. He jumped from 
the animal and ran toward a temple, thinking that if he could secure 
refuge there he would be safe for the while. The mob was close to 
his heels when he gained the temple entrance, but he managed to 
pass the portals of the josshouse in safety. 

" His respite was brief. The head men of the temple bore 
down upon him with a fierceness that was surpassed only by that 
of the mob ^ho waited without, eager for his blood. In vain he 
appealed to the mercy of the guardians of the temple. They ordered 
him to be gone. He refused to obey and they laid violent hands 
on him. In terror he shook them off, and again appealed to them 
in a heartrending manner. 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 539 

" It may have been that the priests of the temple feared the 
wrath of the Boxers as much as did the missionary. It may have 
been that they regarded him as their natural enemy, who had come 
to bring a foreign God into the midst of their people. At any rate, 
they rushed at him with the intention of ejecting him from the 
temple. 

" Then Mr. Brooks forsook the teachings of the gentle Christ, 
and became one. of the Church militant. He knocked down with 
his fist the man nearest him. Instantly the priests of the temple 
became howling dervishes. They rushed upon him from all sides, 
and, with his back to the wall, he used both right and left arms with 
telling effect. One priest, rushing in under his guard, was caught 
up in both his strong arms, whipped off the ground and thrown 
^oack among his countrymen, knocking them right and left. 

BOXERS WANTED HIS BLOOD. 

" But the unequal fight could not last long. The Boxers 
prowled about the door of the temple, cutting the air with their 
knives while watching their prey. The priests, who by this time 
had grown greatly in numbers, threw themselves on the exhausted 
man. They pinioned his arms, dragged and pushed him to the 
door. Then they hurled him into the arms of the Boxers. The 
latter set upon him, striking him on the head w 7 ith their knife 
handles and pricking him with the blades. They kicked him, 
punched him, and tore his face with their nails. 

"He offered them ransom. They jeered at him and spat in his 
face. Whatever money he had they were sure of. They wanted 
his blood. They threw him on the ground and bound his hands 
behind his back. They cut a hole through his nose, ran a rope 
through and led him along, yelling and dancing about him, the 
villagers joining in their revels. 

" In this fashion they led the captive to another village some 
miles away. Soldiers of the province looked on complacent^ at 
the shocking conduct of the outlaws, but did not attempt to inter- 
fere. At the noon hour the Boxers paused to eat. They tore the 
clothing off the missionary, leaving him .but scant attire, though 



540 MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

the thermometer was below the freezing point. The poor man 
shrieked aloud in his agony, but his sufferings only delighted the 
yellow fiends. They pricked him with their knives in the face 
and body, some of them driving their knives with force. The blood 
freezing on his body increased his agony. 

" With a desperation born of the terror of his position, Mr. 
Brooks wrenched his hands free from their bonds, and, seizing the 
opportunity when the attention of his captors was distracted, stole 
away. Then fear lent speed to his faltering steps and he ran for 
his life. But his liberty was of short duration. Three horsemen, 
were sent in 'pursuit and they soon overtook him. He jumped 
into a deep gully and there took his last stand. 

" When his pursuers came upon him, he again offered money 

and begged piteously for his life. Knives in hand, they stood over 

him and taunted him. They waved their weapons and laughed at 

him, and circling about him like vultures, sprung upon him from 

different directions. Then they stabbed him until he fell dead 

when they cut off his head and bore it back to their companions in 

triumph." 

DIE AS MARTYRS. 

" Accustomed, like so many others who make their home in 
civilized and law-abiding countries of the Occident, to regard mar- 
tyrdom as pertaining to mediaeval history, and as having no place 
in the nineteenth century, it was not until my first trip to China, 
about a quarter of a century ago, that I was brought for the first 
time face to face with the fact that the sufferings of which we read 
as having been undergone for the sake of Christianity are not mere 
fairy tales and picturesque exaggerations, destined to fill the coffers 
of the various missionary societies, but are, on the contrary, grim 
realities," writes an ex-attache. 

" Our ship, the old Anadyr, which now lies at the bottom of 
the Red Sea, had on board a number of priests, monks and Sisters 
of Mercy bound from Marseilles to China, to take the place of those 
who had been put to death in such an appalling fashion at the time 
of the frightful Tien-Tsin massacre in 1870. And when we arrived 
at Saigon, the capital of French Cochin-China, there was carried on 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 541 

board in a dying condition a young French, priest whose hair and 
beard, in spite of his seven and twenty years, were snow white, 
whose eyes were sightless, whose hands and feet were swathed in 
bandages, and whose face bore traces of such physical agony under- 
gone that even after all these years it still haunts my memory. 

" His labors as a missionary had taken him to the vicinity of 
the Chinese border, and there he had been seized and shut off for 
the space of two years, in a wooden cage, in which he could neither 
lie down nor sit up, and where, in addition to having his eyes 
burned out and big wooden wedges forced between each toe and 
each finger, he was subjected to other tortures of so frightful a 
character that while they may be left to the imagination they can- 
not be described. 

" Yet his tormentors were always careful to stop their devilish 
contrivances whenever there seemed to be any danger of his life 
slipping through their hands. They prolonged his existence with 
the idea of prolonging the torture, and the only amazing thing 
about the matter is that he should have retained his mind. But he 
was perfectly sane when carried on board at Saigon after his rescue 
and liberation, and was able to speak to me during the trip up to 
Hong Kong, and I was by his bedside when he breathed his last, 
just as w r e were entering the port. 

THE FIRST MARTYR. 

" That was the first martyr who came under my own observa- 
tion, and the remembrance of him recurs to me at the present 
moment when there is so much discussion in progress, first as to 
the responsibility of the missionaries for the present troubles in 
China, secondly as to the right to defend themselves when in dan- 
ger of death ; and last and most important of all about the ques- 
tion as to whether Christians, priests or laymen have the right to 
destroy their own lives or those of others in order to escape inevit- 
able and certain torture. 

" It is the last of these problems which is the one that appeals 
most strongly to the average man. The latter, especially if he 
happens to recall the stories of the Indian massacres of white set- 



542 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 



tiers in the Western States and Territories of America, even dur- 
ing the last five and twenty years, will be able to sympathize with 
the idea that led the envoys at Pekin -to keep their wives supplied 
with a quick and sure poison, to be used for themselves and their 
children, sooner than to permit either to fall alive into the hands of 
the Chinese. He will feel, too, for the resolve of the envoys to use 




INTERNATIONAL TROOPS LEAVING TIEN-TSIN STATION FOR PEKIN. 

their pistols first of all upon their loved ones, should the poison 
fail to do its work, and then upon themselves, rather than that any 
of them should be captured alive by so cruel a foe. 

" To every man who has a wife, a sister or a child, this would 
seem the only thing to be done under the circumstances, and to be 
every bit as justifiable as when Vice Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, 
unable to carry his wounded along with him any further in his 
retreat to Tien-Tsin, had them shot by their comrades in deference 



MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 543 

to their entreaties, rather than abandon them still living to the 
tender mercies of the Chinese who were in hot pursuit. 

DENOUNCED BY RELIGIOUS PAPERS. 

" It would seem, however, that these means devised by brave 
men to save those near and dear to them from appalling torments 
far worse than death, do not meet with the approval of certain 
Christian denominations at home. They are roundly condemned 
by the majority of the religious newspapers on both sides of the 
Atlantic. Of course under ordinary conditions of life, such as 
prevail in the great cities of the United States and in the western 
countries of Europe, neither suicide nor yet the infliction of death 
upon others, for the purpose of putting to a quick and merciful 
end sufferings certain to result in a fatal and lingering issue, could 
for one moment be excused or condoned without the upheaval of 
our entire social system and code of ethics. But the conditions are 
so entirely different in semi or wholly barbarous countries that it 
is difficult to judge white men there by the same standard as those 
at home. 

" It is well enough to discuss martyrdom in an abstract sense 
and at a safe distance ; and for those who have always had a metro- 
politan policeman within hail to protect them from bodily harm, it 
is easy to lay down the law as to what a man has the right to do 
when face to face with such alternatives as those by which our 
envoys in China have been confronted. But they are not in a 
position to judge, and when they take it upon themselves to con- 
demn the precautions adopted by the foreigners in Pekin, they 
merely show that they are lacking in that particular virtue which 
the founder of Christianity declared to be indispensible to salva- 
tion — namely : " charity." 

A man may hesitate about taking his own life to save himself 
from torture ; but if he has warm, generous blood in his veins, if 
he is a manly man, he will not hesitate about forcing his dear ones 
to commit suicide or, failing that, to kill them himself rather than 
to permit them to be subjected to the unspeakable tortures of the 
Chinese. 



544 MISSIONARIES AND THEIR SUFFERINGS. 

" With regard to tlie question as to whether missionaries have 
a right to defend life by means of force and arms, some denomina- 
tions take one view about the matter and others a diametrically 
opposite one. Thus at the anti-foreign outbreak in Unganda, in 
the early part of 1897, all the Church of England missionaries in 
that portion of Africa responded to the British Commissioner's call 
for volunteers and took part in the fighting ; did so, too, with the 
sanction of their Archdeacon and their Bishop Br. Hanlon. 

" Indeed, the latter subsequently explained in writing a 
letter published by the London daily newspapers that in crises of 
such a character as that which had taken place in Unganda, it was 
' absolutely necessary for every white man in the country to stand 
shoulder to shoulder, and for missionaries to fight,' with just as 
much vigor and relentlessness as laymen, 

MISSIONARIES RIGHT TO DEFEND. 

" On the other hand the Roman Catholic Church strictly for- 
bids its missionaries to bear arms or to shed blood in defense of life. 
Council after council has reiterated this prohibition, taking the 
ground that secular and spiritual arms must be kept apart. If 
convinced that the missionary is the bearer of nothing but words 
of peace the natives may tolerate his presence among them and 
even lend an ear to his exhortations. For throughout Asia and 
Africa the unarmed preacher, no matter what his faith or creed, is 
regarded with a certain degree of respect, and if his doctrine seems 
preposterous, he is often looked upon as crazy. 

" If Asiatic races were given to understand that conflicts with 
missionaries would not be made the subject of subsequent territorial 
demands ; that foreign governments would have nothiug to do with 
the missionaries and that the latter would be left to settle their own 
difficulties with the native authorities, the number of anti-foreign 
outbreaks would diminish, the work of the missionary would be 
vastly facilitated, and there would disappear one of the principal 
sources of friction between the Orient and Occident." 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Horrors of the Torture. 

Secret Prisons Many— Instruments of Torture Used — Branding the Body — Use of the Rack 
— Science Invoked to Aid Torture — Manner of Attacking White Men — Native Stoics 
Many — Indifference to Pain — The Philosophy of Torture — Use of Vitriol — The Knife 
and Sword— The Poison Cup. 

IN that now much talked of work, " The Yellow Danger " by M. 
P. Shiel, numerous illustrations are given of methods of torture 

in Chinese prisons. The method described in the following 
quoted paragraphs has been known to other foreigners than the 
author and is said to be still used in the prisons of the Empire 
where accused of high rank are incarcerated. The author writes : 

" Sin-wan entered, and at his entrance this time John Hardy's 
flesh writhed like the flesh of a twisting serpent from his feet to the 
roots of his hair. Fire was the instrument of torture at which he 
felt the deepest horror. And Sin-wan had now with him a brazier, 
which swung from his fingers by a handle. In the brazier glowed 
and flushed the living coals of flame. . . . He deposited the bra- 
zier in a farther corner, took some small metal objects from a fold 
of his robe, dropped them on the floor, and approached the kneeling 
form. He proceeded to bind him as before, arms and feet to the 
chair. But this time, first of all, he took off John's shirt from the 
upper part of his body leaving it to hang downward from the navel. 
This done, he went towards the fire, took up two of the six small 
metal objects which Le had dropped, and put them on the fire to 
heat. 

" The six objects cor listed of four tiny Latin capital letters in 
iron ; they were the letters A, S, Y, H — the initials of Ada Seward 
and Yen How ; there were also a roll of iron wire and a pair of pin- 
cers. It was the intention of Sin-wan to print the four letters all 
over the body of John Hardy --on his breast, on his two arms, on 
his thighs, on his back ; two at a time ; two each day. Sin-wan took 

one of the two iron letters from the fire with the pincers, and hold- 
36 545 



546 HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

ing it from him, approached Hardy. The iron emitted a red glow, 
and seemed to burn into the staring eyesight of the victim. 

" When his bare chest could feel the radiated heat, his torturer 
stood, holding the metal steadily still. And so, for a few minutes 
remained ; then returned and replaced the iron in the fire without 
having touched John with it. And now he climbed and stood upon 
the table, the roll of wire in his hand. The three lanterns hung 
from the ceiling by hooks near to open spaces in the boarding of 
the ceiling, through which the candles were placed in the lanterns. 
Over one of these hooks Sin-wan threw a length of wire ; and over 
another another length of wire. The hooks were near to each 
other. 

FELL UPON THE MARBLE FLOOR. 

" With one end of each of the two pieces of wire he made a 
half-loop ; and at once he hurried to the fire, snatched up the red- 
hot letter A with the pincers and hung it upon one of the loops ; 
then the S, and hung it upon the other. Their weight was suffi- 
cient to make the wires ruu through their supporting hooks ; and 
they fell upon the marble floor. Sin-wan now gathered the other 
two ends of wire and secured them to a point in the wall, having 
drawn the two letters some inches from the ground. In his hand 
he held a piece of bamboo, and with this, standing in a line with 
the wires, he struck first one of the letters, then the other, gently 
forward. The two letters began to swing to and fro through the 
chamber, with uneven motions, one this way, one that. And right 
in the line of their movement sat John Hardy. 

" It depended entirely upon the force of the propulsion which 
Sin-wan imparted to the letters with the bamboo, whether or no 
they touched the naked chest of the bound victim. Sometimes 
they touched and left behind them, as they swung back, a whiff of 
smoke. Sometimes the} 7 touched twice in succession, one, or both. 
Sometimes they were only expected — with a shrinking horror, and 
whistling breath — and did not touch at all. 

" It was a monstrous torture — the worst he had yet suffered — 
this coquetry of pain — these fleeting, incalculable kisses of the hot 
and dancing letters. For every kiss — a whiff of smoke." 



HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 547 

INFLICTING PAIN A PLEASURE. 

In the contrasts history furnishes, few things are more strik- 
ing than the change of attitude as to the infliction of pain. The 
primitive man found enjoyment in inflicting suffering or in seeing 
it incurred. He gave his captive all of it he could inflict on him. 
His amusements were connected with his employment of it. His 
practical jokes generally involved it. His only idea of family and 
social discipline was through inflicting it on offenders. He despised 
the man who shrank from it, and admired above all others the 
woman who was indifferent to it, or ready to make others suffer it. 

All this, or nearly all, has passed away from us. Except in 
the laugh with which people still greet a fall on the ice, there is 
hardly any such thing left as enjoyment of other people's pain ; 
and yet this involves the abandonment of a source of enjoyment 
which must once have given keen pleasure. 

Partly, this change is due to a moral advance which forbids us 
to enjoy at the expense of others' suffering. It is altruism applied 
to a matter in which altruism costs us little more than abstinence. 
But probably much is due to the advance in nervous development 
of the higher races. The structure and arrangement of the nerv- 
ous system is one of the tests of the position of any organism in 
the scale of being. The higher it stands the more closely the 
nerves are gathered into ganglions of sensitive activity. And 
this advance from the polyp up to man does not stop when man 
is reached. The lower human races are markedly inferior in 
nervous sensitiveness. 

The Chinese are marked as very near the lowest round of the 
human scale by their lack of nerves, or their callousness to pain. 
A student of Chinese characteristics says that a Chinaman can 
sleep lying across a wheelbarrow, with his mouth open and a blue- 
bottle fly buzzing in his mouth. Also that a Chinese baby will go 
to sleep in any position you can get it into. This is the explana- 
tion of the cruelty of the tortures and punishments inflicted by 
Chinese law upon malefactors. 

The punishments of civilized life would not touch the dull 



548 HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

nerves of the Chinaman. He must be cut into slices, or boiled 
alive, to make him feel it. Unfortunately he is unable to imagine 
that any one else feels things more accutely than he does, and 
when men of other races fall into his power and incur his anger, 
he treats them as if they were Chinamen. 

Among civilized people the sensitiveness to pain has been 
carried to an excess which is socially harmful. Society seems to 
have got into that morbidly nervous condition in which its teeth 
are set on edge by whatever suggests pain. Many of the argu- 
ments against war under any conditions turn on this hypersensi- 
tiveness to pain. In view of them we are told that u the most un- 
just peace is better than the justest war." But there are worse 
things in the world than the sufferings even of a battlefield. The 
humiliation and degradation of Christian peoples under Moslem 
rule are an instance of this. 

The Chinese have invoked the aid of science in their tortures, 
everything is done in a scientific manner. A victim is tortured 
until life is almost extinct, revived, and tortured again. Europeans 
who have fallen into the hands of the Chinese, have grown old 
in a single night, the agony which they undergo leaving marks 
on their faces which are never eradicated. 

USE OF VITRIOL. 

The Chinaman understands the use of vitriol and employs it 
in the following manner. The victim is placed on a high-backed 
chair, his arms bound behind the back, and his chest, high up to 
the neck, upon it. Underneath, his shoeless feet are bound to 
cross-pieces. He cannot move his head backward, for the chair pre- 
vents him ; he can move it forward about fifteen degrees, and from 
side to side about thirty degrees. But just before the torture com- 
mences a leather strap, four and a half inches broad, and sixteen 
inches long, with clasps at the end, is placed around the victim's 
neck and clasped. Then he can move his head neither backward, 
forward nor sideward. 

Then he feels— something — a drop of water, which falls upon 
his head from above. This gives him no pain. The water falls in 



HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 549 

drops at intervals of thirty seconds, for about ten minutes. Sud- 
denly something else falls upon his head and eats into his scalp 
— a drop of strong vitriol. The next drop is water, and perhaps 
two or three more of water, and then the vitriol. Later the drops 
of vitriol come more frequently — sometimes two or three at a time 
—and this is continued until the victim becomes unconscious. 

The native stories told about the Christians are many and 
curious. Henry Savage Lander, writing of the Boxers, in the 
Chicago Times-Herald, says : 

"The war song of the Boxers is followed by a bit of prose 
which is quite in keeping with the ideas and beliefs of the majority 
of uneducated Chinamen. The prose runs as follows : 

WAR SONG OF BOXERS. 

" The relations and friends of all around notice recently that 
members of the Protestant and Roman Catholic religions poison 
the wells with poisonous powder, and that whoever drinks the water 
have their lungs and intestines rotten within eighteen days. Two 
men have been arrested by us, and we find they have down (hair) 
all over their bodies. They are silent when questioned and bold 
when tortured. Those who smell the poison will die immediately. 
You must be very cautious in drinking the water. Those who see 
this notice must make it known. It will avoid calamity befalling 
the people. It must by all means be done. 

" Strange as all this may at first seem, it is rather interesting to 
trace the cause of these beliefs among our pig-tailed friends, or 
rather enemies. Any resident in China will tell you that these are 
really only a few of the more common ones. The idea of the 
poison that kills you when you smell it originated by a Chinaman 
being present in a mission hospital when chloroform was adminis- 
tered to a patient previous to being operated upon. 

" The usual malicious stories are circulated in Boxers' placards, 
of foreigners kidnapping children to turn them into soup or to 
pound them into jelly, that has marvelous qualities as a medium, 
after it nas undergone further process of drying in the sun ; or 
of eyes plucked out of people unawares by foreign doctors. For- 



550 HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

eign devils, they say, then grind these eyes into dnst and use them 
in their occult arts. Most of these absurd rumors are said to have 
originated by natives seeing surgical operations performed in mis- 
sion hospitals. 

MONKS HYPNOTIZE CHILDREN. 

" The kidnapping of children is invariably the first accusa- 
tion brought against foreigners, and whenever riots occur against 
' white devils ' the instigators do away with a number of these little 
unfortunates and then hold foreigners responsible for their disap- 
pearance. The Buddhist monks, however, in this Boxer move- 
ment, have devised a slight variation in this detail. They are very 
adept at hypnotism, and they avail themselves of this power to 
impress the masses. They hypnotize young boys, and then at 
night leave them in a state of catalepsy along a thoroughfare. 
When a sufficient crowd has collected round, the monks duly appear 
and point out the ' actual proof of the evil doings of foreigners.' 

" The boy, apparently dead, when the crowd has been worked 
into a state of frenzy, is by the monks restored to life — resuscitated 
— by which they further convince the bystanders that whatever 
deviltry foreigners may be up to, Buddhist monks have the power 
to overcome them and make things good. It was this simple hyp- 
notic experiment carried on on a large scale that induced Boxers 
to rush into the field against modern rifles, under the belief that 
the Buddhist monks had made them invulnerable. 

" The people that have suffered most in this movement have 
been native converts. Hundreds have been tortured, burned alive, 
massacred. Many Europeans, too, in the interior, are reported to 
have suffered atrocious tortures, such as ' the thousand cuts,' ' the 
slow death.' European women have suffered shame and have 
eventually been beheaded. Their heads have been swung in cages 
to serve as an example to others. In their hunt for native Chris- 
tians the Boxers adopted a singular mode to identify them. Over 
the head of the unfortunate captive a magic mirror is held, in which 
a cross (say the Boxers) is plainly reflected, if he be a Christian. 

u As the magic mirror is made of silvered metal, slightly convex, 



HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 551 

when in a powerful light a luminous cross is always visible, so that 
the poor devils arrested on suspicion are always mercilessly put to 
death." 

Secret prisons in the Empire are many. Their cells are small, 
damp, filthy rooms, lighted (if at all) b} r Chinese lanterns. In 
many instances comfortable beds are furnished, but the torture 
meted out to the victim becomes accordingly greater. There is no 
system of ventilation and the air is foul. It is not known how 
many prisoners are confined in these secret prisons, but it is sup- 
posed no small number. Many have chambers of torture, where 
the rack forms the principal instrument employed. 

Magistrates have the right to devise and inflict special punish- 
ments Among those which have been witnessed and reported by 
European and American observers may be mentioned roasting a 
man in a clay pipe over a slow fire, nailing a man to a door and 
quartering him, burying a man in quicklime and pouring a pail 
of water over his head, burying a man alive near the hills and 
anointing his head with molasses so as to insure attacks from the 
little insects, and, lastly, death by thirst. Over one hundred and 
fifty methods of putting a person to death are on record. Under 
some ancient laws magistrates are permitted to use other means 
in special cases. 

Among special methods which are reported to have been em- 
ployed are: first, pouring water into a man's mouth through a funnel 
till the stomach and intestines are so distended as to threaten to 
burst ; piling weights on the prostrate body until the abdomen and 
chest are crushed in, and building a fire upon a man's stomach or 
back. The poison cup is another method, by which death is pro- 
duced, either instantly or after the victim has suffered great agony; 
or he may be revived and submitted to other tortures, according to 
the wish of the authorities. The sword is used for beheading — the 
method of beheading being fully described in another chapter. 

FAMOUS RIDE OF HARRY PARKES. 

The advance of the allied army towards Pekin recalls a similar 
expedition of English and French troops, which inarched over the 



552 HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

same ground in September of the year i860, and brings to mind 
the brilliant services of Harry Parkes, whose daring ride from 
Tungchou to Chan-Chia-Wan formed one of the most remarkable 
incidents of the second Anglo-Chinese war. As interpreter of the 
city of Canton, Mr. Parkes proved a valuable servant of her Maj- 
esty's government, and later as consul at that city he became a 
.strong arm to his country. 

The " Arrow" incident precipitated a second war between Great 
Britain and China. When the walls of Canton were stormed and 
a desperate conflict was waged in the breach, Mr. Parkes, with 
Captain Key, made his way into the opposing city and dauntlessly 
pursued to his Yamen, Commissioner Yeh, bringing him forth as a 
captive, whence he was sent as a prisoner to India. 

TACTFUL MANIPULATIONS. 

By the tactful manipulations of Mr. Parkes a perpetual lease 
was obtained on two islands lying off Hong Kong, where English 
troops were to be placed on their arrival from England or India. 
In August, i860, the Taku forts were seized and the city of Tien- 
Tsin occupied by the allied forces of English under command of 
Sir Hope Grant, and French, commanded by General Montauhan. 

At Tien-Tsin a representative of the Chinese Emperor held a 
conference with Lord Elgin, who commanded the Chinese in con- 
formity to the Tien-Tsin treaty of 1858. At the village of Hoswin, 
Prince Tsai, a second messenger from the Emperor, opened nego- 
tiations, and it was agreed that the final stipulation should be 
amicably settled between the ambassadors and the imperial commis- 
sioners at the city of Tungchou, a few miles further on. Accord- 
ingly the advance continued without incident until near the village 
of Chan-Chai-Wan Sir Hope Grant came suddenly upon a large 
army ; and instead of royal commissioners he faced a hostile array 
of picked Manchu forces under the leadership of the rabid anti- 
foreign general, Saukolinsin, who occupied the ground which had 
been assigned for the English camp. 

On the day before making this discovery Sir Hope had sent 
forward Mr. Parkes with a small cavalry escort to arrange prelimi- 



HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 55% 

naries for the meeting with the commissioners at Ttingchon and to 
provide suitable camping facilities. Mr. Parkes and his men made 
. the journey safely and after a long parleying, on the Chinese side, 
arrangements were concluded late in the evening. The following 
morning Mr. Parkes took a few of his men and rode back to inform 
Sir Hope Grant of the arrangements, leaving the larger number of his 
company at Tungchou. 

The martial scene that met their gaze during those early 
morning hours was vastly different from the conditions existing 
the day before. Large bodies of troops were hurrying toward the 
town, regiments of cavalry were drawn up ready for immediate 
action, batteries were being mounted, and all along the road to 
Chan-Chi-Wan thousands of warriors were busily engaged in 
manifest preparations for hostilities. No apparent notice was 
taken of Mr. Parkes and his men, and to all their inquiries as to the 
import of the warlike preparations evasive answers were given. 
When asked where the commanding general was they replied that 
he was far away. 

TRAP LAID FOR ENGLISH. 

The truth flashed across Mr. Parke's mind and he realized that 
a trap had been laid for the English army, into which Sir Hope 
Grant was doubtless leading it at this moment. There could be no 
mistake, and two important duties demanded his instant attention: 
first, to apprise Sir Hope of the snare prepared for him, second, to 
bring before the Chinese commissioners his knowledge of the grave 
consequences which must surely follow such violation of good 
faith. 

Accordingly Mr. Loch, with three troopers, was sent to notify 
Sir Hope Grant, and, to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Chi- 
nese, the others of the party were to remain where they were, 
except one dragoon and one sikh cavalryman, who were to accom- 
pany Mr. Parkes on the ride back to Tungchou under a flag of 
truce. 

Mr. Loch rode rapidly through the Chinese line of horsemen and 
soon reached the English army. His message confirmed Sir Hope's 



554 HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

suspicions, which had been aroused by the unusual activity in the 
distance. Unwilling to remain in safety while his companions 
were still in danger, Mr. Loch, with his three attendants, galloped 
back to rejoin the others, assured that if not forced to open hostili- 
ties Sir Hope would postpone the battle for two hours. They 
reached Tungchou in safety, and at the city gate learned from one 
of the sikh troopers that Mr. Parkes had gone to find the High 
Commissioner. The other Englishmen, unaware of any danger, 
were in a distant part of the city visiting the shops. 

At last the yamen of the commissioner was found, and when 
Mr. Parkes asked the meaning of the hostile preparations, Prince 
Tsai defiantly replied that there could be no peace : " there must 
be war." Mr. Parke's worst fears were too trne, and Saukolinsin's 
army had been summoned to execute the treachery of the princely 
commissioner. 

He could do nothing more to avert the battle. He had placed 
himself in gravest peril to attain a peaceful solution of the diffi- 
culty. Pie could now only seek his own safety and that of his 
companions. As he galloped away from the yamen he met Mr. 
Loch, who had come in search of him and to tell him that the 
other Englishmen were assembled at the city gate. 

A DESPERATE RIDE. 

Before them lay ten miles of the enemy's country, swarming 
with troops, which must be traversed to reach the English line, and 
the two hours nearly up. It was a desperate chance, and all realized 
the hazard. As they hurried on toward the town they observed 
that the plain was quite deserted, the Chinese had moved their 
troops forward to meet the English. 

They rode in safety to Chan-Chia-Wan, but the jaded horses 
could no longer be forced, and they made their way slowly through 
the streets thronging with panic-stricken villagers, on to the oppo- 
site gate and down the hill beyond where the little band of seven 
Englishman with their guard of twenty Indian sowars found them- 
selves in the rear of the whole Chinese army. 

Hitherto the peril of the undertaking was trivial compared 



HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 555 

with the hazard which confronted them, for at this moment a shell 
burst in the air, batteries from both sides opened fire, the battle 
was on, and they were ten minutes too late. Their way lay through 
the center of the Chinese position, and on both sides of the road 
were files of infantry who would gladly fire on them as they ad- 
vanced. To go forward through the enemy's ranks in the teeth of 
a constantly increasing fire from the British guns meant certain 
death, and as the horses were too jaded to consider making a dash 
to cut their way through, the men agreed to follow Mr. Parkes in 
whatever way he chose to move. He was determined to attempt 
to reach the right flank of the English lines by a detour. 

Up to this point the Chinese had offered them no resistance, 
but seeing a change in their course they were halted by a Mandarin 
and informed that they would be fired upon if they attempted the 
flank movement. He was willing to honor their flag of truce if 
they would accompany him to the commanding general, who would 
pass them in safety through his lines. 

As nothing else could be done the offer was accepted, and with 
the Mandarin went Mr. Parkes, who chose Mr. Loch and Nalsing, 
the trooper, to attend him, while the others remained on the road 
to await their return. Passing through a body of infantry they 
barely escaped death at the hands of the infuriated soldiers, but the 
Mandarin's orders. "not to fire" controlled the outburst, and they 
were soon in the presence of Saukolinsin himself. 

DRAGGED ON THEIR FACES. 

Mr. Parkes told him that they had come under a flag of truce 
and wished to rejoin their army. The Tartar general answered 
with scorn and abuse, laughed at their request, and immediately they 
were torn from their horses, dragged on their faces before the 
taunting general, while every insult and indignity which the 
soldiers could heap upon them were administered. Death seemed 
inevitable, for the battle in that quarter was being fiercely waged 
against the Chinese, and the Tartar troops would gladly have re- 
venged their losses in the blood of the victims, but Saukolinsin 
ordered them bound and carted off to Pekin. 



556 HORRORS OF THE TORTURE. 

Their companions who had waited for them, were even more 
cruelly treated and the whole band was sent back to Pekin, where 
they endured the vengeful tortures of their captors for nearly a 
month. 

Mr. Parkes and Mr. Loch were among the eleven survivors 
who were released in October, when the allies invested the north 
gate of Pekin. The others one by one succumbed to the unspeakable 
atrocities perpetrated by that prolific source of barbarity. The 
summer palace, where the prisoners suffered such cruelty, was 
sacked and burned by the allies. The Emperor took flight to Jehol, 
leaving his brother Prince Kung to conclude the terms of peace 
with the best grace he could command. 

In the application of its justice, China would doubtless receive 
the approbation of the lawgiver Draco, who believed that the 
smallest crime deserved death, and that there was no greater 
punishment than death for any crime. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 
The Law of Marriage. 

The Wife and the Husband— More than One Wife— Treatment of the Children— Ideas oft 
Life— Punishment for Infidelity— Despotic Power of the Husband— Respect for the 
Mother in Law— Fate of Widows— Method of Divorce— The Family a Holy Institu- 
tion — How It Originated. 

EXCEPT among the very lowest classes of China the lot of a 
Chinese woman cok tains no more hardships than that of the 
average American woman. A Chinese wife is not required 
nor permitted to do any extraordinary amount of thinking, bnt as 
Fin-Fin said one day : 

" Why should we think ? Our husbands are kind to lis ; we 
have but one dream, and that to make them happy, and if there 
were more thinking than that our foreheads would be nothing but 
wrinkles, and then we would be no longer loved. " 

Fin-Fin at the time she said this had been a resident of the 
Chinese quarters on Second street, Portland, Oregon, for five years. 
Her husband was one of the most prosperous merchants on the 
street, and as good-hearted a man as one might know. 

"American women think too much," said he, " and that is 
why love comes so easy to them and goes away just as easy. A 
woman who is always thinking has too much temper. My wife 
(this proudly) never thinks." 

A CHINESE MERCHANT HUSBAND. 

Fin-Fin's husband was never drunk. He never struck Utr a 
blow. Their religion was alike. Of clothing, jewels, pretty things, 
she had everything she could desire. There were children in the 
queer little home over the fish market, and perpetual happiness 
between father and mother. They probably occasionally quarreled. 
But never before any one, that is an unpardonable sin. The 
Chinaman and his wife reserve all disputes for the privacy of their 
rooms. It was Fin-Fin's husband who from time to time (during 
a three month's acquaintance) gave observations from the tongues 

557 



558 THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

of past wise men of China on women. Some of these will prove 
old to the American eye ; others have never appeared in American 
print before. Thus he said one afternoon : 

" Respect always a silent woman ; great is the wisdom of a 
woman that holdeth her tongue." 

" That saying," said he, " is more than 3,000 years old in my 
country. Children are taught it before they are ten years of age." 

"The smile of a silent woman is like the setting of the sun 
upon a beautiful sea," said he. Put the two proverbs together and 
it is evident that the premium upon feminine silence in China is a 
high one. 

" A vain woman is to be feared, for she will sacrifice all for 
her pride." 

" Trust not a vain woman, for she is first in her own eye." 

" A haughty woman stumbles, for she cannot see what may 
be in her way." 

" Trust not the woman that thinketh more of herself than 
another; mercy will not dwell in her heart." 

" The gods honor her who thinketh long before opening her 
lips. Pearls come from her mouth." 

" A woman that is not loved is a kite from which the string 
has been taken ; she drives with every wind and cometh to naught 
but a long fall." 

" A woman and a child are alike ; each needs a strong uplift- 
ing hand." 

THE WOMAN WHO RESPECTS HERSELF. 

" A woman that respects herself is more beautiful than a 
single star ; more beautiful than many stars at night." 

" Woman is the ease for that which pains the father ; she is 
balm for his troubles." 

" A woman who mistakes her place can never return to where 
she first was; the path has been covered up from her eyes." 

Many more things said this wise Chinaman, for he is wise 
and wealthy. He controls much of the Chinese fish market of 
Portland, and while true to the faith of his fathers, is a liberal be- 



THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 559 

liever in such principles of the American Republic as he under- 
stands. Other proverbs given by him were: 

" A woman desirous of being seen by men is not trustworthy ; 
fear the glance from her eye." 

" Give heed to her to whom children have come ; she walks 
in the sacred ways and lacks not love." 

" When first a woman loves she fears ; she fears not that to 
which she has been accustomed." 

" A mother not spoken well of by her children is an enemy of 
the state ; she should not live within the kingdom's walls." 

" A woman without children has not yet the most precious of 
her jewels." 

"Give heed to the voice of an old woman; sorrow has given 
her wisdom." 

" A beautiful woman knows not her charms, therefore she is 
beautiful, more so than the colors of the sea." 

" Speak not ill of any woman; if a woman be not righteous 
what she is speaks for itself." 

" Like sheep that be leaderless many women come together 
for much talk." 

" A woman who gives her all to the state or for the shielding 
of the home is next to the gods ; she shall not hunger when the 
last sleep cometh upon her." 

" Death is feared only by the woman that has not lived life; 
she trembles when the thunder rolls." 

And much more than this said Fin-Fin's husband, but there 
is not space to add more to this. Sufficient has been given to par- 
tially reveal the Chinese conception of woman's place in the life 
of the celestial world. 

TREATMENT OF CHINESE CHILDREN. 

There has been a lot of nonsense written about the treatment 
of Chinese women and of girl babies. While it may be true that a 
Chinese father prefers a son to a daughter — a weakness shown by 
a good many other kinds of fathers — the girl babies are not badly 
treated. 



560 THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

The pictures of girl children being thrown into the river are 
the results of isolated cases, and the fact that societies for the pre- 
vention of cruelty to children have been found necessary to prevent 
the abuse of many tiny tots all over the world proves that China is 
not the only country where, unfortunately, there are barbarous 
parents from whom children must be taken. 

Chinese fathers are devoted to their children, boys and girls, 
indeed, a small family is considered a great misfortune, and the 
Chinese head of the house so afflicted buys enough children to 
make up the deficiency. The idea of buying may seem strange, 
but the transaction consists simply in taking and promising to pro- 
vide for some poor man's baby or an orphan without a home. The 
gratitude for the possession of the child is expressed by a present 
bestowed upon whoever was responsible for the child. These 
adopted waifs are always well treated. 

AN IMPORTANT FUNCTION. 

The naming of a Chinese baby is an important function and 
the names given are peculiar. Girls are called, instead of Mary 
Ann or Marguerite, "Spring Peach," " Cloudy Moon," "Celestial 
Happiness," or what may not be considered so nice, " Come-Along- 
a-Little Brother," or " Add-a- Younger Brother," or "Lead-Ever- 
lasting-Younger-Brothers." The latter means that a son would 
have been more welcome than a little " go-away child," as they call 
the girls. They belong to the family of the husbands-to-be and 
not to the family of their birth, so that when a Chinaman is asked, 
" How many children have you ? " he makes no count of the girls, 
although he may have ten. The boys only he counts, and his 
reply will indicate the number of boys. 

He gives his sons such names as " Ancestral Piety," " Ances- 
tral Knowledge," " Practice Industry," " Able to Sing Out," " Sec- 
ond God of Learning," " Excite the Clouds," " Beginning of Joy," 
" All Virtue Complete." The little slaves who begin life as house- 
hold drudges before they graduate lower answer to such names as 
"As You Please," "Sparrows' Crumbs," "Joy to Serve," "Your 
Happiness," " Not for Me." 



i 



THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 561 

In certain districts in the Empire the father has the right to 
sell his children into bondage. The practice is rare, although a 
large number of girls are destined to a life of slavery. Rich fami- 
lies often own them by the dozen and most families in easy circum- 
stances have at least one slave amongst their servants. However, 
the slave state is only temporary for women, their masters being 
obliged to provide them with a husband when their condition is 
altered. 

Male slaves may also, before their thirtieth year, require their 
owners to find them wives, and as heads of families they transmit 
the slave state to the male issue only down to the fourth genera- 
tion. In other respects the slaves are mostly treated like the other 
servants, receiving instruction in the schools, competing at the 
public examinations, and obtaining official appointments. In the 
latter case the owner is bound to allow them to redeem themselves 
and families. Married women may be sold by their husbands, but 
only as wives, never as slaves. 

EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN. 

The learning the children acquire at school is a curious mix- 
ture, with little in common with the education of Western children. 
The Chinese children are gathered in borrowed rooms anywhere 
that may suit the whim of the pedagogues, the latter using them 
also for living purposes. The rooms devoted to teaching are 
rarely, if ever, heated in any way, even in the dead of winter ; their 
floors are the. bare earth, and no furniture is provided except some 
small, rude tables and benches, which the children bring in. 

The educational process consists chiefly in memorizing pas- 
sages from Confucius and other Chinese sages. Each pupil is 
required to repeat his lines over and over as loudly as possible, the 
volume of noise he is able to make being taken, seemingly, as a 
measure of his proficiency. The uproar made by a school of 
twenty or thirty children, each going " on his own hook," can be 
faintly imagined. And the din is kept up from early morning 
until nightfall. 

Prof. Isaac Taylor Headland, President of the Pekin Univer- 
36 



562 THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

sity, lias prepared a book entitled " The Chinese Mother Goose," 
published by the Fleming H. Revell Company, in which he gives 
the rhymes sung by Chinese parents to their children, from which 
the following three verses are quoted : 

A Lullaby. 
" The heaven is bright, 
The earth is bright, 
I have a baby who cries all night ; 
Let those who pass read what I write. 
And they'll sleep all night, 
Till broad daylight." 

The Bat. 
" Bat, bat, with your flowered shoes, 
Come to us here in the room, 
This little girl will be the bride, 
And I will be the groom." 

A Little Girl's Wants. 
"I want some thread, 

Both green and red ; 

I want a needle long, 

I want some strands 

For ankle bands, 

To give to Mrs. Wang." 

The Chinese are fond of music, yet they are not musical, or at 
least have not been supposed to be. But education may develop 
latent tastes and talents in this as in other particulars. Vocal 
music had an important place in the curriculum of the North China 
college at Tung-cho, lately burned and looted by the Boxers, 
though little time was devoted to it. It is generally supposed that 
the Chinese, all of w T hose music is little more than a barbaric caco- 
phony, are incapable of appreciating or reproducing the delicate 
harmonies of a modern anthem. 

How far from true this impression is appears from what had 
been accomplished in the college after several years of instruction 



THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 563 

in the tonic sol-fa system. Not only were the students able to sing 
any ordinary hymn-tnne correctly at sight, and in all four parts — 
which the boys of no American school could have done twenty 
years ago — but this was done mostly under the instruction of native 
teachers, older students selected from their own number. 

How valuable all this was, and how much it told of future 
usefulness for these young men as pastors or preachers, able to 
lead and instruct their congregations, it needs no reflection to un- 
derstand. Still the Chinese mother gets along very well with her 
lullabies and they have the desired effect. 

TREATMENT OF WOMEN. 

Women in China, of course, have no rights from a Western 
point of view, but they are not abused, are generally kept in luxury 
by the men they marry, and are not ill-treated. The women of the 
lower classes perform hard work, but so do men. Women coolies 
carry heavy packages, but men coolies run with little carriages like 
horses, so it is difficult to blame the Chinese man for abuse of his 
wife in such cases. The carrying of packages is no harder than 
scrubbing or washing and farm work performed by women of the 
Western world. 

The law and custom allowed a Chinaman to have as many 
wives as he can support ; but only the first wife is regarded as the 
legitimate mother of the household. She is the ruler of all the 
children, who will mourn for her a hundred days. The husband 
who can remarry as often as he likes, does not show any sign of 
mourning for his wife to the outer world, but a woman who marries 
again after her husband's death is not considered respectable. But 
the great majority of Chinese do not adhere to polygamy. They 
have a proverb which says that where one woman reigns, there is 
peace ; two women under the same roof signifies a fight, and three 
women intrigue and disorder. 

Whatever be the husband's conduct, the wife must submit and 
obey in silence. She may appeal to neither parents nor magistrate, 
and may at most suspend in the temple a paper image of her lord, 
and ask the " Goddess of Mercy'' to change his heart. Panhwei 



564 THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

pan, the most illustrious of learned Chinese women, who flourished 
in the first century of the new era, has laid down all the duty of 
women in the classic memoir of the " Seven Articles." 

She says that the old custom was at the birth of a daughter 
to offer to the father bricks and tiles, " bricks because we tread them 
under foot, tiles because they are exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather." " The wife must be a mere shadow, a simple echo." 
When her husband selects one or more concubines, generally from 
amongst his slaves, she is bound to welcome and live in peace with 
them. 

The husband alone has the right of divorce, and without arbi- 
tration he may dismiss his wife, even though her only fault be 
bodily ailments or a love of gossip. But when she displeases him 
he usually prefers to get rid of her by sale, er tering into a formal 
contract with the purchaser, which is regarded as a purely personal 
matter. The wife, though she can never divorce her husband, may 
remonstrate with him, but not so as to irritate or annoy him. She 
does not eat with him, or appear in public with him, and must 
travel in a closed sedan, if she would visit other women. To friends 
visiting the home, she is an invisible, nameless thing ; and, con- 
versely, gentlemen seek female society in the shape of courtesans. 
Girls are secluded in the women's apartment after ten years of age; 
and after early bethrothal are sedulously watched ; being bad by 
nature, and therefore as " dangerous as smuggled salt." 

CONDUCT OF WIDOWS. 

Nor has the self-immolation of the widow on her husband's 
grave entirely disappeared, the usual methods being drowning, 
hanging, or poisoning themselves, never by fire, as in India. Their 
resolution is announced beforehand, when relatives, friends, and the 
curious assemble from all parts to encourage and applaud. 

When the Anglo-French army entered the province of Pechili 
in i860, thousands of -women committed suicide to avoid falling 
into the hands of strangers. Thus the wife is taught to consider 
that she has no existence apart from her husband, and for whatever 
liberty she may enjoy she is indebted to the general mildness of 



THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 565 

the national character. Virtuous maidens and widows are honored 
after death with numerous triumphal arches outside the larger 
cities. 

Like all other social acts, marriage is accompanied by endless 
ceremonies, the symbolism of which is little understood. " Heaven 
itself," says the Shuking, " has made the distinction of ceremonies, 
which are for us immutable laws." The ceremonial comprises 
manners and etiquette, as well as everything that distinguishes 
cultured from barbarous people. 

Whoever respects tradition finds his line of conduct already 
laid down for him in every civil or religious ceremony, in his visits, 
receptions, and other social duties. He knows the prescribed num- 
ber of salutations and knee-bendings ; calculates to a nicety the 
length of his stride, his " bowing and scraping," the pitch of his 
voice, the extent of his smile. "All virtues have their source in 
etiquette " is a sentiment attributed to Confucius. 

DOMESTIC LIFE IN CHINA. 

The domestic life in China is quiet and happy. In the 
ordering of a Chinese household there is much that might be imi- 
tated to advantage by European families. The reverence with 
which the children regard their parents, and the esteem in which 
the mother-in-law is held, foster the affection of which this rever- 
ence is the outward and visible sign, and the peace of each house- 
hold is assured by the presence of a supreme authority, against 
whose dicta there is no appeal. Although sons generally remain 
under their fathers' roofs after they are married and have them- 
selves become fathers, yet so impossible would it be for a young 
Chinaman to rebel against, or even to dispute with his parent that 
difficulties seldom arise from this close association of several gen- 
erations. 

The family institution has existed ever since the time of the 
early settlers of the Empire, who were sheep herders. The fathers 
becoming governors of provinces were called " pastors." To gov- 
ern provinces they must first learn to govern their families. This 
they did, and the family became a holy institution and has 



566 THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

remained as such up to the present day. When the government 
of the Empire began to take definite form, the Emperor was called 
" father,'' and his subjects his " children." 

The son's property is as much under paternal control as is his 
liberty. " While his parents are alive, a filial son will not have 
wealth that he calls his own.'' Since " the ceremony of marriage 
was intended to be a band of love between two families," the par- 
ents choose the son's bride ; and " if he very much approve of 
his wife and his parents do not like her, he should divorce her." 
" A filial son will be good even after his parents' death mainly to 
reflect honor upon them." The patriarchal system of family life 
is dear to the heart of every Chinaman, and when his time comes 
to die, death loses to him half its terrors if he is assured that 
his sons will be present at his tomb to perform the customary rites- 

POSITION OF THE WIFE. 

Early marriages are almost universal in China, and as soon as 
a young man comes of age his parents cast about to find a help- 
mate for him. The would-be bridegroom has very little to say in 
the matter. He rarely sees his betrothed until she has become his 
wife. " A new bride introduced into a family lias visible relations 
with no one less than with her husband," writes Rev. Arthur H. 
Smith in his " Village Life in China." " He would be ashamed to 
be seen talking with her, and in general, they seem in that line to 
have very little to be ashamed of. 

" In those unique cases in which the young couple have the 
good sense to get acquainted with each other, and present the 
appearance of actually exchanging ideas, this circumstance is the 
joke of the whole family circle, and an insoluble enigma to all its 
members. We have heard of cases in which members of a family 
where there was a new married couple kept a string in which 
was tied a knot every time that they were heard to speak to one 
another. This cord would be subsequenty exhibited to the ridi- 
cule of their intimacy." 

Chinese papers describe the marriage of a young woman of 
Shanghai to a red flower vase, a substitute for the son of a wealthy 



THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 567 

Mandarin to whom she had been engaged. Her fiancee died before 
she could marry him, and as she had vowed never to wed, the flower 
vase was substituted. 

When a woman goes into a shop in China, a clerk with much 
ceremony brings fragrant tea, which is served in fine style. The 
compliments of the season are exchanged, the topics of the times 
are discussed, there are talks about the weather — in fact, every 
kind of evasion is employed to keep away from the real reason of 
the visit, which is to buy something. The proprietor solemnly 
watches these proceedings from afar. The style of compliment is 
of this order : 

" In what celestial country did your exalted excellence pur- 
chase the superfine garment upon which I feast my eyes ? Surely 
in no miserable and unworthy land like our own ?" 

When tea and talk are exhausted, the little pipe-bearer who 
always attends his master or mistress out of doors, lights a pipe for 
his employer. There are only a few whiffs in each pipeful, so the 
process has to be frequently repeated. Then business begins. The 
shopper asks the price of the required article, and makes an offer 
for it that is much lower. This is promptly refused, in language 
that is courteous and polite beyond description. Then the possible 
purchaser departs with great dignity and elegance. 

ACTION OF THE PROPRIETOR. 

The same scene is renewed day after day, sometimes for three 
weeks running. In the course of time the proprietor himself 
sends the article to the house of his haggling customer. Again 
and again it is returned. The price is too high. When a bargain 
is completed, the purchaser never pays for it himself. The chief 
steward is called, notified that the article has been accepted, and 
when the bill comes in, the u boy" settles it, giving an account 
quarterly to his master of money disbursed for the household. 

Money, as we have it is unknown in China. There are no 
silver dollars, no fractions of dollars, as quarters and ten-cent 
pieces ; no paper banknotes. There is a coin called ki cash" with a 
hole punched in the middle, that is used for small transactions. 



568 THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 

" Cash" can be strung like beads on a string. It takes one hun- 
dred pieces to equal the value of one standard cent Gold is only 
used for ornament, never for current coin. 

The currency of China is virgin silver, made into the shape 
of a Chinese shoe. A servant carries this in a bag. When a bill 
is to be paid, his master — usually the steward or " boy" — takes out 
a pair of pocket scales, cuts off a piece of the silver shoe and weighs 
it carefully ; adding or taking away a little to make the required 
amount. 

Another form of money is the tea-brick — hard, dried tea, com- 
pressed into brick form from which pieces are chipped and weighed 
like the silver. Strands of stamped cloth, issued by local banks 
also serve as money. Their value is stamped plainly upon the 
cloth. So many strands equal to so much silver. 

The auction in China is a grave, portentous affair, held in per- 
fect silence. The auctioneer exhibits his wares, leaning over a 
counter slightly elevated. The bidder says not a word, but steps 
before him and runs his fingers up his sleeve, making pressure on 
his arm that indicates what he wishes to pay. Then another, and 
another, does the same ; sometimes a dozen or more. When the 
bidding is over, the auctioneer signified who the successful pur- 
chaser is. No one knows the price offered, or whether favoritism 
influences the award. But all is dignified, sedate, majestic. There 
is none of the bustle seen in Occidental bargaining. 

HOW PAINTING IS DONE. 

Although some very curious examples of the Chinese painter's 
art reach foreign countries, yet the children of the Flowery Land 
claim for their artists successes quite equal to anything done or seen 
in the West. Many are the anecdotes told regarding the achieve- 
ments of the old masters. Time is of small account with the 
Chinese, hence there is current to this very day a story which dates 
back to the third century. An artist of that period had painted a 
screen for the Emperor and added some flies to the picture by a few 
touches of the pencil here and there. 

The Emperor, on inspecting the beautiful work was so annoyed 



THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. 569 

at the sight of the flies on the picture that he whipped out his 
handkerchief and flicked the painting with it, with the intention, of 
course, of driving the flies away, believing that they were samples 
of the real pest, and not merely painted ones. Coming down a 
little nearer the present epoch, another native artist of fame deco- 
rated a wall in one of the halls of the palace and introduced into the 
picture a convoy of pheasants remarkable for their fidelity to 
nature. 

Some foreign envoys who had called to pay their respects to 
the Emperor, brought with them a tribute of falcons. The ambas- 
sadors were ushered into the hall, and no sooner did the birds of 
prey catch sight of the pheasants portrayed on the wall than they 
made a precipitate dart at their victims, more, of course, to the 
detriment of their heads than to the satisfaction of their appetites. 

A characteristic of the Chinese cultivated man is his supreme 
contempt for Western civilization. He is not a monkey mimic like 
the Japanese, eager for everything European, but a scornful cynic 
viewing all things European with disdain, proud of his own race 
and country, his habits and customs. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Love and Death. 

Association of the Two — How a Chinaman Woos— Response of His Sweetheart — Belief in 
the Immortality of the Soul— Burial Ceremonies— Watching for the Spirits of the 
Dead — Symbols of Love — Death Not Feared— Poetry of Love — Agents Who Assist 
Lovers for Fees. 

FOR ages the Chinese have followed a funeral practice which 
has been held in more reverent esteem than the pigtail. 
When a man dies his son dedicates to his memory a tablet 
of wood upon which are inscribed the words "Spirit Lord'' and 
" Spirit Throne." After burial this tablet is taken home, set up 
in a specially prepared place, and the eldest son, morning and 
evening, for the mourning period of three years, sets before it offer- 
ings to the soul of the dead man. This custom is not religious 
any more than the Christian custom of strewing flowers on the 
graves of the departed. It is only the peculiar fashion in which 
the Chinese honor the memory of their ancestors. And, strange 
as it may seem, this practice has stood between Christianity and 
the millions of China for two centuries. 

With his fatalistic views of life the Chinaman assv ciates his 
love and his knowledge of death together as twin sisters. He 
never looks upon the face of the adored one without a sigh for the 
physical end of life, which must separate them. Through his 
poetry, his songs of affection, rises a cry of regret for the coming 
of death. He does not possess that strong characteristic of the 
Western type which permits the man of England or the man of 
America to love without the shadow of death falling across his 
affections until it is actually at hand. The Chinaman narrows his 
mind with haunting visions of the grave and the punishments of 
purgatory and while he stoops to take the kiss which love offers 
him, draws back because his fevered imagination has felt the chill 
of a wind from the tomb. 

" Happiness such as ours," said Kee-Foo to his betrothed, " is 
570 



LOVE AND DEATH. 571 

divine, but," and lie says this mournfully, " it will but end in the 
grave." 

Despite, though, this joining of the happiest of subjects to the 
most gloomy, the Chinaman is by no means an uncanny mortal 
when he goes to woo. Ages before he was born to earth a vast 
ceremonial was arranged which he must pass through before he 
can finally reach the side of his betrothed and know that she is his. 
In some particulars the ceremonial varies in the different provinces, 
but the essentials are about the same. 

SELECTING A SWEETHEART. 

The matter of securing a wife is almost as serious as prepara- 
tion for the priesthood, or as one Oriental humorist put it : " Pre- 
paring to be executed." Every Chinaman has an enormous number 
of relatives. Every Chinese sweetheart is blessed with an equal 
or greater number. Outside of these are a vast host of friends and 
minor officials of the church and state who must all be taken into 
consideration when the young man is prepared to make love to the 
woman of his choice — or perhaps the choice of some of his con- 
nections. 

For a Chinaman to select a wife or to approach a sweetheart 
except in the most orthodox manner is as impossible as it would 
be for an Englishman or an American to woo by the Chinese 
methods. To many ceremonies common, no doubt, to primitive 
man, Chinese custom has added a hundred others for the guidance 
of the lucky or unlucky suitor. His pathway from the moment 
he has seen the object of his affections is not one strewn with roses, 
but with few roses and many thorns. Let him be ever so eager to 
begin his wooing by meeting the fair one, he yet must wait days, 
weeks, months and sometimes years before he is able to speak a word 
to her. 

The Chinese believe that marriages are fore-ordained ; that 
they are made in heaven and controlled by the God of the Moon, 
and that what is tied together there must surely come together 
here as well. The following legend, told by a prominent Chinese 
scholar, forms the basis for this belief: 



572 LOVE AND DEATH. 

" Spring had almost decided to say good-by to the people of Qu 
Tong, and welcome summer, prolific in rarest flowers and softest 
breezes, knocked for entrance at the strong door in the wall of this 
ancient Chinese city. It was more than a thousand years ago, but 
as Wai Goo gazed out of his class-room window he was seized with 
the same impulses which would have filled the soul of the average 
young American of to-day. 

" Charming was the night, fine the moon and sick was Wai 
Goo of his studies. For Wai Goo was eighteen and overflowing 
with the enthusiastic romanticism of youth. Already he was an 
acknowledged leader in the younger set of the best Qu Tong so- 
ciety, for Wei Jong, his father, was the chief magistrate of the city 
and was known as an estimable man. Besides his blood was the 
bluest of any in ancient On Tong. 

" Unnoticed by his more studious companions, Wai Goo left 
the study-room and sauntered forth into the garden, filled with the 
poetry of nature — the love of the fleecy clouds, of the silvery moon, 
of the soft sighing leaves and the beautiful blossoms, of life on 
earth and all its pleasures. Seated on a rustic bench Wai Goo 
rejoiced in the picture before him. The moon was full ; the college 
grounds were silent save for the gentle sounds of nature. The 
delicate rustle of foliage and flowers seemed appropriate to this 
scene of quietude. 

THE MAN FROM THE MOON. 

"Above a darkly -frowning mountain brought into bold relief 
the long, low row of college buildings at its base, snowy in their 
whiteness. Oriental plants and shrubs cast their luxuriant fra- 
grance all about and the warm night air was heavy with the scent 
of many petals. Sparkling fountains dashed their crystal splendoi 
high in air, the constant plash of their falling waters soothing th< 
listener, who sat alone — alone with nature. And Wai Goo was happy. 

" But of a sudden he realized that he was not alone, for seated 
on the shrub before him he discerned the shadowy figure of a quaint 
old man — white whiskered and weird and misty. His glance was 
unearthly; his garments seemed to be woven of silvery flame. 



LOVE AND DEATH. 578 

"Strangest of all, however, were the myriad tiny human like 
figures the aged visitor carried on his back and in his arms and 
strung about his girdle. They were tied together in pairs, and 
there were millions of them — no larger than the pistils of the 
smallest flowers in the college gardens. 

" ' Stop ! ' cried Wai Goo, for the phantom was disappearing. 

" The old man halted. 

" Then, with all the veneration of the young Chinaman of all 
times for superior age, Wai Goo saluted the white beard and said : 

" ' Pray tell me, father, what are those little creatures. They 
seem to be alive ? ' 

"A smile played over the old man's countenance as he answered: 

" ' Each pair represents a real man and a real woman now living 
on this earth.' 

THE FEATURES MISSING. 

il 'And who are you,' importuned the eager young student. 

" The old man pointed with solemnly upraised finger at the 
fair, full moon above and said : 

" ' I am the man from the moon.' 

" ' The man from the moon ! ' exclaimed Wai Goo. ' Why, then 
I have seen your face from afar ? ' 

" ' True", true.' 

" And, looking back at the silvery sphere, Wai Goo saw that 
the features of the man were missing from its face. 

" l And what do you here ? ' 

" ' I control the heart destinies of all the earth. All marriages 
are foreordained from the moon ; each life is bound to another, and, 
unless some accident happens to the little manikins I hold and they 
become separated, the real people on earth must come together 
sooner or later. My task is to keep them together, and I generally 
succeed. The real human beings have no control over marriages. 
I attend to that.' 

" Wai Goo was transfixed with wonder. 

*' ' Good night, son of this earth, and forget not the words of 
the man from the moon.' 



574 LOVE AND DEATH. 

" Wait! 1 wait !' called the wonderstruck student, and he sank 
to his knees to beseech the old stranger to stay, 

" ' Oh ! tell me my fate, good man from the moon ! ' 

" Searching through the myriad little figures, the old man 
drew one pair from the struggling mass and said : 

"'Your future wife, lad, is one month old. She lives in Qu 
Tong, on Oman Tsin street, near unto the great Temple.' 

" And in another moment the man from the moon had faded 
from Wai Goo's sight, and, gazing back at the moon, the young 
student saw that the features of the man had returned to its face. 

"Wai Goo knew not what to do, so he forced himself to return 
' o the halls of learning and retire to the dormitory in which he had 
a share and to sleep. 

SEARCHES FOR HIS FUTURE WIFE. 

" Day had not long taken the place of night when Wai Goo 
was out in the streets of Qu Tong and searching for the house on 
Chuan Tsin street, near the great Temple, where lived the baby 
girl, one month old, who was foreordained to be his wife. 

" Rage filled the proud young fellow's soul, for he thought it 
a humiliation to be tied for life to a girl who was then only a 
squalling infant. He told no one of his secret, but repaired at once 
to the street the man from the moon had named. 

" Blinded by his anger, he had some difficulty in finding the 
house the moon man had described, but find it he did at last, and 
there to be sure in front of the house was the baby daughter of the 
family, one month old. 

" Fury filled Wai Goo's heart. 

" Some evil power must have brought his nervously twitching 
hand into contact with the dagger suspended at his girdle, for in 
another moment, scarcely knowing what he did, this strong young 
man had viciously stabbed and slashed the helpless little child 
across the face and head. 

" Wild screams of terror from the old nurse who held the 
wounded child soon brought an angry throng of Qu Tong citizens, 
and Wai Goo, owing to his prowess as an athlete and runner. 



LOVE AND DEATH. 575 

escaped without having been recognized. And he went away, this 
hitherto amiable youth, filled with the longing of the hardened 
murderer that his innocent victim would die of the injuries he had 
inflicted. So he treasured up the story of his crime and none was 
the wiser for his guilty knowledge. 

' Time passes quickly. Therefore, consider that years have 
passed between this paragraph and the last, and the influential 
Wais have removed to another province far away, where Wai 
Jong is still a power in the government. He is proud of his son 
Goo, for the student who talked with the man from the moon is 
now a settled man of thirty-six, who has made a name for him- 
self in the community in which he lives. 

FAIRER THAN ANY OTHER. 

" And about this time came from another city an old friend of the 
aged Wai Jong, who had a daughter fairer than any other girl in 
the province. She was eighteen. Wai Jong spoke proudly of his 
big son and his old friend spoke fondly of his beautiful daughter. 
So before long it had been arranged between the two parents that 
their children were to be united as husband and wife. The mag- 
nificient Lan Gue and Wai Goo had never laid eyes upon each 
other, but that made no difference, if their respected parents 
wanted them to marry. 

" So Wai Goo and Lan Gue were married, and as the young 
bride was possessed of that rarest of dowries, a sweet disposition, 
and of ways that were winning, their married life was happy. But 
husbands of all lands and times have longed to know all about 
their wives, and this rule proved true in Wai Goo's case in medae- 
val China. 

" For the pretty little wife diminished her beauty greatly, her 
liege lord thought, by plastering down over her eyebrows a heavy 
bang. Long and frequent thinking on this subject brought Wai 
Goo the conclusion that his wife had something on her forehead to 
hide, and, surprising her at her toilet one day, he brushed aside the 
long bang, and beheld just over the left eyebrow a cruel and deep, 
ugly scar. 



576 LOVE AND DEATH. 

" ( Explain ! ' he exclaimed. 

" Lan Gue was greatly agitated by this discovery, but she told 
him how, when she was but a babe, an unknown man had attacked 
her with a knife in front of her parents' house in Chuan Tsin 
street, in the city of Qu Tong. Then, with bowed head and face 
bedewed with tears, Wai Goo said : 

" ' The man from the Moon told the truth.' " 

THE "GO-BETWEEN." 

Marriage in China is not the result of acquaintanceship ripen- 
ing into affection, as among Western nations. As has been stated 
before, the bridegroom rarely sees his betrothed until she has 
become his wife. The preliminaries are entirely arranged by a 
professional u go-between " or " match-maker," who is usually a 
woman and whose fees are not small. She makes it her duty to 
acquaint herself with all the marriageable young people of both 
sexes in the neighborhood. 

When employed by the bridegroom's friends she calls on the 
parents of some young lady whom she considers would make a 
suitable wife for the future bridegroom, armed with a card on which 
are inscribed the ancestral name, and the eight symbols which 
denote the year, month, day and hour of the birth of the suitor. 

Should the lady's parents be inclined to accept the proposal 
they consult a fortune-teller as to the future prospects of such a 
union. If the answer be favorable a return card is given to the go- 
between, and this in turn is submitted to the scrutiny of a fortune- 
teller employed by the man's parents. Should the oracles pro- 
phesy good concerning the match the bridegroom prepares two 
large cards on which are written the particulars of the engage- 
ment ; and on the outer side of the one which he keeps is pasted a 
paper dragon, and on the one which is sent to the lady, a phoenix 
— emblems of conjugal fidelity. Each card is further sewn 
together with two pieces of red silk. 

Legend traces the origin of these silken cords to the time of 
the Tang dynasty (618-907). During that period, it is said that 
a man named Hwuy Ko, while sta}ang at the town of Sung, saw 



LOVE AND DEATH. 577 

one evening an old man reading a book by the light of the moon, 
who addressed him thus : 

" This book is the register of the engagements of marriage for 
all places under heaven, and in my pockets I have red cords with 
which I tie together the feet of those who are destined to become 
man and wife. When this cord has been tied, though the parties 
are of unfriendly families, or of different nations, their fates are 
fixed." 

Following the exchange of cards, presents of more or less 
value according to the wealth of the contracting parties pass 
between the two households, and at last when the happy da}' has 
arrived, the bride surrounded by her friends, starts from her 
father's house in a sedan chair for her future home. Half-way 
between the two houses she is met by a party of the bridegroom's 
followers, who escort her the rest of the way. 

In this custom it is impossible not to see a survival of the 
primitive custom of marriage by capture. At the present day, in 
some parts of Central Asia, the bride rides off on horseback at full 
gallop from the door of her father's house or tent, followed by the 
bridegroom, who, after an exciting chase, is allowed to come up 
with her, and she straightway becomes his property. 

THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 

Among some of the Siberian tribes, again, the bridegroom is 
obliged to hunt his bride through the compartments of her father's 
tent, while old women go through the farce of tripping him up and 
otherwise hindering him in his pursuit. In more civilized China 
there are fewer traces of the ancient capture, and the contest has 
there become but a formal act of taking over the bride on her way 
to the bridegroom's house. 

On alighting from her sedan chair she is led with her head 
covered into the room where her future husband awaits her. 
Without exchanging a word the}' sit down side by side, and each 
tries to sit on a part of the dress of the other, it being considered 
that the one who succeeds in so doing will rule in the household. 
After this silent trial of skill they adjourn to the reception hall, 
37 



578 LOVE AND DEATH. 

where stands the family altar, and there they worship Heaven and 
Earth, and their ancestors. This done, they drink a glass of wine 
together, when for the first time the bridegroom is allowed to see 
the face of his bride. Here the marriage ceremony ends, and the 
guests give themselves up to feasting and rejoicing. 

The Chinaman does not fear death if he has sons to be present 
at his tomb to perform the customar}^ rites and to offer the pre- 
scribed sacrifices. The entrance to graves must be kept unimpeded 
in order that the soul of the departed may pass between its tomb 
and the households of the descendants. Curiously enough, the 
tombs, especially in the south of China, are all made in the shape 
of a horseshoe. 

The descendants anxiously watch for the spirits of the de- 
parted, as, if anything interferes with the repose of the dead, the 
living may expect to be visited by misfortune. Thus the China- 
man believes in the immortality of the soul, for not only does he 
believe that the souls of his recent ancestors visit his family, but 
the souls of all his ancestors from the very beginning. 

THAT FAMOUS BOOK. 

The Chinese regulate all their actions and relations of their 
lives by the Book of Rites, or Le Ke. This work is said to have 
been compiled by the Duke of Chow in the twelfth century B.C. 
No every-day ceremony is too insignificant to escape notice, and 
no social and domestic duty is considered to be beyond its scope. 
From the nature of its contents, therefore, it is the work of all the 
classics which has left the most palpable impression on the man- 
ners and customs of the people. Its rules are minutely observed 
at the present day and one of the six governing boards at Pekin — 
the Board of Rites — is entirely concerned with seeing that its pre- 
cepts are carried out throughout the Empire. Speaking of this 
work and its relation to the Chinaman, Callery says with justice : 

" In ceremonial is summed up the whole soul of the Chinese, 
and to my mind the Book of Rites is the most exact and complete 
monograph that this nation can give of itself to the rest of the 
world. Its affections, if it has any, are satisfied by ceremonial ; its 



LOVE AND DEATH. 579 

duties are fulfilled by means of ceremonial. Its virtues and vices 
are recognized by ceremonial ; the natural relations of created be- 
ings are essentially connected with ceremonial ; in a word, for it 
man is ceremonial, the man moral, the man politic, and the man 
religious, in their numberless relations with the family, society, the 
state, morality, and religion." 

Much of China's poetry is filled with a spirit of family love. 
It brings before the mind's eye the lowly cottage, " where dwell a 
family united by the bonds of affection and of duty. Their food is 
the produce of the soil and the spoils of the chase. The highest 
ambition of men is to excel as archers and charioteers, and their 
religious worship is the same as that which, untainted by Buddhism 
or an y form of philosophical teaching, is now practiced at the imperial 
temples of heaven and earth, by the Emperor only as high priest. 

" Their wives are objects of affection and respect, and though 
in one poem is found the belief expressed that ' a wise woman will 
ruin a city,' yet there seems to have been abundance of regard for 
honest housewives who did their duty, who shared the toil of their 
husbands and enjoyed with them the pleasures within their reach." 

HOSPITALITY OF THE CHINAMAN. 

The Chinaman is by nature courteous, and the following 
account of Marco Polo's scribe of the reception given this great 
traveler by the Emperor Kublai Khan is interesting. 

" When the two brothers and Mark had arrived in Pekin, they 
went to the Imperial Palace, and there they found the sovereign, 
attended by a great company of barons. 

" So they bent the knee before him, prostrating themselves to 
the ground. Then the Lord bade them stand up and treated them 
with great honor, showing great pleasure at their coming. And 
next, spying Mark, who was then a young gallant, he asked who 
was that in their company. ' Sire,' said his father, Messer Nicolo, 
' 'tis my son.' ' Welcome is he too,' quoth the Emperor. There- 
after Messer Marco abode in the Khan's employment some seven- 
teen years, continually going and coming, hither and thither, on 
the missions that were entrusted to him by the Lord." 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Makers of Many Books. 

Great Age of Chinese Literature — When Printing was Invented— The Manuscripts at Munich 
— Tales of Travel — Fables for the Young — Addresses to the Gods — Manufacture of 
Paper — Newspaper Publication— Chinese Cartoonists — The Famous Cartoon on Ger- 
many and England. 

PAPER was first manufactured by the Chinese in the first cen- 
tury a.d. Up to that time they wrote on thin slips of bam- 
boo, the instrument employed being not a pen or brush, but 
a pointed tool. The books of those ancient days were made by cut- 
ting the bamboo, after removing the bark, into thin sheets, which 
were strung together so as to compose a fairly compact, though 
clumsy, volume. 

Later on it was found better to pound the bamboo to a paste in 
a mortar together with water, and the resulting substance was 
spread upon a flat surface to dry. This, in fact, was the first 
paper, in the modern acceptation of the term, though the Egyptian 
papyrus made from a kind of reed that grew along the banks of the 
Nile, antedated it by several centuries. 

After a while the manufacture of this paper was improved by 
adding to it silk and other materials. The Tartars borrowed the 
art, substituting cotton, which was plentiful in their country, and 
from them the Arabs acquired it, using linen instead of cotton. It 
was in this way that paper-making was first brought into Europe, 
being introduced by the Arabs. 

About the year 900 a.d. printing was discovered in China— 

nearly 500 years, that is to say, before the art was known in 

Europe. The first step was the engraving of characters on stone, 

the marks being transferred to the paper in white on a black 

ground. Then came wooden blocks with raised letters, which are 

employed even at the present day in China, being preferred to 

movable types, inasmuch as about 24,000 characters are recognized 

as in good usage among the people in that country. The Chinese 
580 



MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 581 

were a reading people many centuries before books were commonly 
known and read by the lower classes in Europe. 

ONE HUNDRED CASES FOR TYPE. 

The printing of a Chinese newspaper is an interesting novelty. 
Instead of the simple twenty-six letters used in the English alpha- 
bet, the Chinese typesetter must wander among more than ioo 
cases, containing more than 11,000 different characters with which 
the sons of old Confucius express their ideas in printed words. 
These characters are arranged in 214 co-relative groups, each of 
which contains the words of similar root or radical. For example, 
all diseases are in a group, and all trees in another. In this way 
the work of the typesetter is simplified. Instead of remembering 
the particular little compartment for each of the 11,000 words, he 
learns the location of each of the 214 groups. Even then his task 
is a huge job, compared with learning the puzzling divisions of the 
rack containing the English alphabet. 

The Chinese type cases are inclined upon A-shaped racks and 
are grouped according to the relative commonness of the words. 
Ideas most frequently used are in the first alley-way of cases, and 
the rarest words are to be found in the last avenue. In setting up 
an article in type the Chinese frequently have to walk more than a 
mile turning up and down the little alleyways of cases, picking out 
a type here, selecting another there, crossing from side to side, 
winding in and out among the racks, and slowly building his sen- 
tences from the metallic blocks of strange-looking symbols. 

Though printing was invented in China centuries ago, daily 
newspapers are very rare in the old Empire. Movable types are a 
new thing in Chinese printing offices. To-day there are not more 
than thirty Chinese daily newspapers in all China. Canton has 
four, Hong Kong three, Pekin two, and some other large cities 
have one each. But in the great capital is published the Pekin 
Gazette, the oldest daily paper in the world. It is a government 
organ, amounting to little more than an official bulletin of edicts 
and decrees. It is printed on flimsy yellow paper of the consistency 
of Chinese paper napkins, is fastened like a small notebook, and 



j 



582 MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 

contains some fifty or sixty pages about twelve inches long and 
three inches wide. There are no illustrations, no headlines. The 
contents are dry and dreary. On the outside front page, which is 
the back, is a crude cut of a Mandarin of the first class, a bearded 
and much begarbed individual, printed in pink ink, while the body 
of the paper is printed in black. It costs $6 a year. 

BIRTH OF ART. 

The fact that China has been almost literally secluded, walled 
for centuries, has kept the world at large in ignorance of its art 
history. Yet it is known Chinese art was born late in the third 
century, as there arose during that period a school of Buddhist 
sculpture. The chief knowledge of the arts of China has been 
obtained through intercourse of Japan and Corea. It was the Chi- 
nese type, which was almost Semitic in its dominant features, that 
inspired the sculptors of the young kingdom of Corea in the fifth 
and sixth centuries, and it was from Corea that Japan first learned 
of the arts of China. 

In this rich, secluded soil of gentle spiritualism were suddenly 
planted the new, vast institutions of northern Buddhism, and with 
them came literature and the constructive arts. Japanese painting 
has been called the key to art itself, but when all is said it should 
be remembered that China was to Japan what Egypt was to 
Greece, and consequently it was from China that Japan received its 
first lesson in painting and sculpture. The earliest expressions of 
art were inspiredby religion, and the art of every age reflects the 
temper, tone and religious attitude of which it is an expression. 

In Chinese politics the value of caricature and the pictorial 
poster has been fully recognized for many years. The Punch-and- 
Judy show has the unique privilege of treating internal and foreign 
politics with the utmost freedom, where otherwise the expression 
of opinion at variance with the ruling power would be summarily 
repressed and severely punished. The secret societies in China 
have always availed themselves of those means to make proselytes, 
and the Boxers more so than all the rest. The pig always repre- 
sents the missionary. 



MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 583 

The literature of a nation and the customs are always strange- 
ly intermixed. Isaac T. Headland illustrates this in a recent arti- 
cle in which he says: " In all the walks of life the Chinaman is 
always widely different, often exactly antithetical to us. To 
attempt to get a Chinaman to assign a reason for anything is 
futile. The Chinaman is very social but at the same time con- 
servative and non-committal. 

SOME PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS. 

" In introducing people the surname is always given first, 
as in all Chinese nomenclature. Although this is contrary to oui 
custom, it is more reasonable. We say John Smith — they say, 
Smith, John. It is the Smith that is really important and neces- 
sary to know. The John is secondary. 

" When two Chinaman meet on the street they stand at a re- 
spectful distance and each gravely shakes his own hand. If you 
tried to shake a Chinaman by the hand he would probably regard 
it as assault and battery. To lift one's hat to an acquaintance, 
man or woman, would be an insult. White is the Chinese hue of 
mourning. It does not stay white long, however, as the more soiled 
and dilapidated a Chinese mourner looks the greater is the respect 
implied to the dead. For this reason the afflicted ones leave their 
heads unshaven until they attain a remarkable degree of disrepu- 
tability. 

PREVALENCE OF SMALLPOX. 

" Smallpox is almost universal. No precaution" are taken 
against its spread. When a child is taken ill with the disease, he 
is carefully tended until he has ' blossomed out,' as the Chinese 
term has it, then he is allowed to go out in the street ami play with 
other children. It is taken for granted that every one rrust have 
smallpox, the sooner the better. 

" Baldness is fully as common in China as in America. The 
Chinese call it Kuang T'ou, 4 Shiny Plate.' Women suffer most 
from it. This is partly because»of the greasy hair dressing used, 
and still more due to the fashiou of drawing the hair so tight on 
framework that it is slowly but surely dragged out by th* roots. 



584 MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 

" Some one once asked me if the Chinese have the toothache. 
They have everything. There are no Chinese dentists. It would 
be hard to find a race with poorer teeth. 

" Headache, is also very prevalent, but for this they have a 
remedy, or what they allege to be one. They take the skin of the 
temples, or that of the forehead or bridge of the nose, and pinch it 
between the thumb and finger until it is black and blue. Still 
another remedy is to paste a large black plaster or the leaf of some 
tree or plant over the spot. 

" For sore throat they pinch the neck the same as for headache, 
the idea, of course, being to produce counter-irritation. Whether 
it cures or not I cannot say. Nor do I know whether their treat- 
ment for skin diseases and wounds is efficacious. The almost 
universal remedy is a plaster, of what composition I do not know. 
The Chinese understand the use of laxatives, and of certain for- 
bidden drugs and many poisons, but their treatment of open sores 
does not seem to be attended with good results. 

PILLS OF MIRACULOUS VIRTUES. 

" The translation of yellow posters posted upon the walls of 
courts or houses along every street and alley of a Chinese village 
or city would make an interesting piece of literature, but it would 
not be accepted by any respectable publication, nor read by any 
respectable people. There are many of them, however, that are 
unique. One is a poster advertising ( Bicycle Pills.' Tze hsiiig 
ch'e Tan, which guarantees boy children to the family that uses 
them in sufficient quantities. 

" Still others, and there are many of them, promise succor to 
unfortunate girls without danger to either their health or life. It 
not infrequently happens that the walls of the city in certain local- 
ities is covered with strips of cloth one foot by two, indicating that 
the sick have received answers to their prayers by the worship of 
the god in that place, who in many cases is a fox. 

" Many trades which with us are stationary are peripatetic in 
China. The blacksmith packs his shop on a wheelbarrow. Two 
boxes that look like cheese boxes contain the outfit of the shoe- 



MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 585 

maker, who does his work on the sidewalk, in the lee of some wall. 
So does the chiropodist. He is much in demand, as the Chinese 
suffer severely from corns, despite their cloth shoes. All but the 
higher classes are shaved by peripatetic barbers who wander about 
advertising themselves with gongs, or tweezers, which they ring 
like tuning-forks. They are great gossips. 

TRAVELING RESTAURANTS. 

" Our traveling restaurants have been anticipated many years 
by the Chinese purveyor of food, who carries his table on one end 
of a pole, balanced by his stove and cooking utensils on the other. 
With his dough, his hashed vegetables and a little oil and salt, 
he roasts, fries, bakes, broils or toasts quite a surprising number of 
dishes, and their taste would be more surprising than their number 
to an Occidental. 

" Even the confectioner is a wanderer. He carries a bowl or 
jar of mixed taffy and a number of straws in a box. He winds up 
a little of the liquid on the end of a straw and blows it after the 
style of a glass blower into the shape of birds and animals. 

" There isn't a native iron worker in China who can make a 
nail that can be driven without a hole being bored for it. Without 
outside instruction there wouldn't be a Chinese nail made 1,000 
years from now. The Chinaman makes no improvements. 

" If the Chinaman fails to see the immediate utility of a thing 
he gets rid of it promptly for what it will bring. At the beginning 
of the Chinese-Japanese war parts of the large guns of Taku forts 
were in the pawnshops, having been pawned as old brass. Half a 
gun being a somewhat inefficient implement of warfare, the Chinese 
gunners labored under considerable handicap in this respect. 

" Once a Chinese government representative who was new to 
this country and its way came to the house of an eminent New 
York banker for a week's visit. It was winter but he came with- 
out luggage and yet every day he appeared at dinner with a change 
of garment. His body was his trunk : he put his trunk in his 
clothes instead of his clothes in his trunk. His clothes were like 
the peel of an onion except that any layer might be worn outside. 



58G MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 

Many of his garments were silk clothes lined with fur or fur gar- 
ments lined with silk depending upon which side was out. He 
was a puzzle to his host until he explained his method. 

" The Chinaman doesn't blacken his boots, but whitens them 
on the edge of the sole. Sewing is usually done out of doors by 
the Chinese women. When a seamstress sits down to sew she pins 
the work to her bosom and begins sewing it from her instead of 
pinning it to her knee and sewing toward her as our women do. 
The American woman wears her thimble on the end of her finger 
and often pushes her needle with the thimble. The Chinese woman 
wears her thimble between the first and second joint and in this 
way gets a much better pressure on her needle, has a more com- 
fortable place for her thimble and can wear it as a ring when not 
at work. 

" All Chinese artisans work on an ancient and firmly estab- 
lished principle, expressed in their language by the words ' Ch'a 
pu to,' that is ' not far out.' If a thing is ' ch'a pu to' you are sup- 
posed to be satisfied with it. Exactness is too much to ask of a 
Chinaman." 

ORGANIZATIONS OF THIEVES AND BEGGARS. 

" Chinese thieves are required to be, and are, organized into a 
guild. This is required in order that the government may keep 
control of them. Having them thus organized, the government is 
able to hold the king of the guild responsible for all stealing 
done. This not a bad plan, as the following incident will show : 
A friend of the writer was one day going through one of the 
gates of Pekin on horseback, his mackintosh fastened to his saddle 
behind him. In the crowd this was stolen. He rode to the police 
station at once, reported the loss and gave the police two days to 
find the booty. They called up the king of thieves, threatened 
him that they would have the government on his head, and when 
my friend called two days later the garment was there. It should 
be stated that the thieves are compelled to divide with the police. 

" Chinese beggars, like thieves, are organized into a guild. This 
is partly for self-protection and partly for self-help. Every business 



MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 587 

house in the city is besieged at stated intervals, unless the pro- 
prietor ' buys them off.' This he does by paying the king of 
beggars a stipulated sum, when a small slip of paper is pasted up 
on the side of the door which is recognized by all beggars. In case 
a beggar is badly treated by any firm a dozen or twenty of them 
band together and besiege the house, which is unable to rid itself 
of them until they have received a sufficient recompense. When 
this is done the beggars withdraw and the house is left in peace 
until the time for the next beggar to come. Their expression when 
begging is, ' The more you give the more you'll have.' ' Yueh 
Kei, yueh yu.' 

" Despite his inefficiency as an artisan and workman, the 
Chinaman as a business man has a character. He is reliable and 
honest. There is not a big European business firm in the East 
in which Chinamen do not hold responsible positions. Every one 
of the institutions of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking 
Company has a Chinese cashier; even those in Japan. The Chi- 
naman, in a position of trust, is trustworthy. 

" The Chinese early discovered that there is less friction 
caused by one wheel than two, and that a one-wheeled cart runs 
easier on a bad road than a two-wheeled vehicle, and on this account 
the wheel-barrows came into requisition and is now universal. In 
Shanghai the wheel-barrow is used to carry people. The wheel is 
in the center, the passenger on one side, his baggage on the other. 

PRESS OF THE TREATY PORTS. 

" In Shanghai a sail is attached to the barrow to get the bene- 
fit of the wind. In Pekin one often sees a donkey or two or a mule 
or two, or a donkey, mule or horse hitched to a wheel-barrow. 
Sometimes they have four mules hitched to it, with two men in the 
front at the sides to drive and help balance it, and a man behind 
to hold the handles and assist in balancing it." 

All Chinese newspapers, besides the Pekin Gazette, are pub- 
lished in the treaty ports, for the simple reason that the publishers 
feel safer there than anywhere else from arbitrary prosecution by 
the viceroys and other high Mandarins. The publishers frequently 



588 MAKERS OF MANY BOOKS. 

employ, for the sake of freer opinion, Europeans at a fixed salary, 
who simply furnish their names as responsible editors. 

Some of the famous Chinese manuscripts in existence are 
treasured in the archives of Munich and are of extraordinary value 
as showing the first efforts of the race to preserve history. Tales 
of travel for a number of centuries were favorites with Chinese 
authors although as to accuracy these stories may often be called 
into question. Fables for the young have been peddled throughout 
the Empire for ages. 

Many have been printed and still more have been conveyed by 
word of mouth. Old dames delight in relating them to the children 
just as the mothers and grandmothers of America have preserved 
the folk lore of this country. The manufacture of a form of paper 
has been known to the Chinese for a great many generations. The 
first Europeans to visit the Empire found the natives familiar with 
the manufacture of this necessity. 

It is told that the present irritation of the Emperor of Ger- 
many toward China is partly due to a cartoon which was brought 
out in Pekin just at the time of the Boxer movement. This car- 
toon represented the nations of the earth about to swallow up 
China. The United States was pictured as an eagle ; England as 
a bull dog ; France as a frog, but Germany as a bologna sausage. 

The cartoon had a wide circulation among the Chinese and did 
much to bring Germany into contempt in that country. The Chi- 
nese artists are poor drawers but their cartoons never lack point. 



CHAPTER XL. 
What Does the Future Hold? 

Possibilities in China— Qualities of the Race Worthy of Commendation — Evils to be Rv. 
moved — Duty of the Western World — Dangers That May Be Avoided — New Eco- 
nomic Questions- Patience and Intelligence Needed — Diplomacy Much at Fault — 
The Twentieth Century Problem. 

IT is owing to the failure of the Orientals to observe the niceties 
of what we are wont to describe as the "jus gentium " — that is 

to say, the law of nations in matter of diplomatic procedure 
and in war — that Western powers feel themselves relieved of the 
necessity of a too strict observance of the rules that govern warfare 
among civilized nations. For instance the Anglo-French force 
which seized Pekin forty years ago, deliberately reduced to ashes 
the world-famed summer palace of the Chinese Emperors, the most 
fairy-like abode that it is possible to imagine, filled with the most 
priceless treasures. This was considered in the light of a perfectly 
justifiable action on the part of the English and French commanders. 

Yet if, in 1870, the Germans had as deliberately applied the 
torch to the palace of Versailles, and at the same time reduced to 
1 uins the Louvre, crowded as it is with masterpieces of art, it would 
have been regarded in the light of a most inexcusable and barbar- 
ous piece of vandalism, worthy of universal execration. Bullets 
of an expanding character, although prohibited by the laws gov- 
erning war among civilized nations, are freely employed in cases 
where the foe is of a dusky hue, and while the English have re- 
frained from using the dumdum bullet in South Africa, owing to 
the fact that the enemy by whom they were confronted was white, 
like themselves, there is no doubt whatsoever that they will use 
them in China, just as they did throughout the Tirah campaign 
and throughout all the Indian frontier troubles. Indeed, the In- 
dian troops that have gone to China are equipped with no other 
ammunition than these dumdum bullets. Then, too, the circum- 
stance that England should dispatch Indian instead of white regi- 
ments to Chin^ indicated that the latter is regarded as being " be- 

689 






590 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

yond the pale," so far as the obligations of trie rules of war are 

concerned. 

USE OF BARBARIANS CONDEMNED. 

Thus our u jus gentium" condemns the use by Christian 
nations of barbarians in their wars and when Lord Beaconsfield 
brought a large contingent of Indian troops to Malta in 1878 at a 
moment when England seemed to be on the brink of an armed 
conflict with Russia, a perfect chorus of denunciations arose 
throughout Europe, in which even large bodies of English people 
joined, it being pointed out that France had forfeited much of the 
sympathy which she would have otherwise enjoyed in 1870 in pit- 
ting against the German invaders several regiments of Turcos, a 
force made up of semi-savage Algerians, Kabyles, and negroes. 
England would gladly have availed herself of her magnificent In- 
dian army in the South African campaign had she not been un- 
willing to offend the doctrines of civilized warfare, and the only 
use to which she has put Indians during the struggle with the 
Boer republics has been as litter carriers and stretcher bearers in 
connection with the ambulance department. The Chinese, how- 
ever, are not Christians, and, therefore, Indian troops can be used 
without any objection for the march on Pekin. The employment 
of Oriental troops adds to the horrors of warfare, since all the latent 
savagery of their nature is brought to the surface, and in conflicts 
where they are employed few prisoners are taken, and there is but 
little call for the surgeons to attend to the enemy's -wounded. 

John Barrett, formerly United States minister to Siain, touches 
the Chinese situation in the following statement made in the North 
American Review : 

" Through all the confusion of the present and the mystery of 
the future, there stand out these dominant considerations : 

" First, America is the logical arbiter of China's future ; the 
fate of the Empire depends upon the favor of the Republic ; 

" Second, if there is a Yellow Peril threatening the White 
World, America, more than any other Power, can lead the way to 
rendering it colorless and innocuous ; because, 

" Third, America is the only nation present in China to-day, 



WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 591 

with force and with prominent interests, rights and commerce, 
which has the unqualified confidence and trust of the European 
nations, Japan and China alike, or is not the object of long standing 
jealousy and distrust; and, 

" Fourth, an International Congress or Conference, in which 
America for the three reasons just given should occupy a promi- 
nent and possibly the leading part, will, in the nature of events, be 
assembled in the near future, to consider what shall be the attitude 
and policy of the nations of the world, not only in coping with the 
great problems of the re-establishment of order, the rehabilitation 
of the government, the award of punishment and indemnities, but 
in determining the future status of China's government and terri- 
tory and their relation to the outer world. 

AMERICA'S POLICY. 

" With this responsibility and position, what shall America's 
policy include ? There should be no equivocation as to the princi- 
ples involved. Expressed briefly, the main planks in our Chinese 
platform might be stated as follows : 

" I. The United States desires and should take no port, pro- 
vince or part of China, either as a sphere of temporary influence or 
as an area of actual sovereignty. 

" 2. The United States should oppose, with all its moral, poli- 
tical and diplomatic influence, any partition of China among the 
foreign Powers, or any delimitation of acknowledged spheres of 
influence. 

" 3. The United States should insist upon the permanent 
maintenance of the trade principle of the Open Door, as outlined in 
the present Chinese treaties, throughout all China, by all the Pow- 
ers endeavoring to exercise influence within her limits. 

" 4. The United States, provided the dissolution of the Empire 
is inevitable, despite our best efforts of diplomacy and moral sua- 
sion, should insist upon the guarantee, by formal convention, of the 
Open Door principle in all the various areas of foreign sovereignty 
in China, and will carefully guard against excuses for discriminat- 
ing duties, national rebates or subsidies and special freight charges 



592 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

— for the consuming powers of an increasing population of four 
hundred millions of people and the material development of four 
millions of square miles are involved. 

"5. The United States, acting with charity and equity, and 
in no spirit of vengeance, should employ all its moral and material 
influence in prescribing just punishment and indemnity for loss of 
life and property sustained at the hands of fanatical and insurrec- 
tionary mobs; in adjusting the true moral responsibility of the 
overwhelmed government ; in establishing permanent order and 
honest progressive administration of government throughout the 
Empire ; in safeguarding, both for the present and the future, the 
lives, rights and holdings of missionaries, merchants and other for- 
eign residents ; and, finally, in so preparing the way for peace, 
order and prosperity, to be followed by liberty, justice and freedom 
under the guiding direction of Christian civilization, that we shall 
win the everlasting gratitude of the countless blameless Chinese 
and make them forever our disciples in moral and material pro- 
gress. 

OTHER NATIONS IN THE GAME. 

" With the future of China there are concerned four great 
European factors : Russia, England, Germany and France ; two 
Asiatic, China herself and Japan ; one American, the United States. 
In such a combination jealousies, distrust and bickerings may clog 
the way to a satisfactory solution of the great problem. For in- 
stance, which one of the first four would the other three select and 
follow ? They could unite 011 none, and yet all are most friendly 
to the United States and always willing to listen to its represen- 
tations. 

"Again, what non-Asiatic power would China and Japan alike 
trust? Only America. This was confirmed by their attitude to- 
ward America in their late war. Toward what country has China 
the most friendly feeling ? Without doubt, America. For a long 
time she has recognized us as the only country desiring none of 
her territory, and wishing to maintain only and always the most 
amicable relations with her. Even the Chinese Exclusion Act has 



WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 593 

cut but little figure in Chinese- American relations, for its operation 
has been felt only by a small portion of Chinese in the southern 
part of the Empire. 

" My theory is simply that the United States is the one nation, 
from the remarkable strength of its position, that can exercise the 
vigorous moral influence and leadership in the coming negotiations 
of the Powers, which will assure the settlement of the present 
crisis, first, with strict justice and honor to all nations concerned, 
and, second, with no selfish scramble for territory that will lead to 
the violent break-up of the Empire and the ultimate shutting of 
the Open Door." 

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. 

Upon the Chinese people we of the West have intruded. We 
have told them in plain terms that they are ignorant heathen. We 
have told them that they are barbarians. We have told them 
that the faith to which they have held for thousands of years and 
which has sufficed to their needs, even as our creeds sufficed to 
ours, is a vain and empty thing, and that if they wish to be saved 
they must turn their backs upon it and embrace our own. As a 
prominent Chinese resident of London said in an interview : 

" You have told us that our children are born to be damned ; 
that our ancestors who died in our faith and not in yours are suf- 
fering the tortures of purgatory ; you have frightened our women 
and children ; you have sown doubt in the minds of our people ; 
you have filled our souls with unrest ; you have tried to destroy 
the faith to which we have clung for ages, and you have offered us 
nothing better in its place. Indeed, you have not even agreed as 
to what you believe yourselves. My people have become suspi- 
cious ; some day, I fear, they will become something worse." 

Apart from this phase of the question, it cannot be said that 
Western ideas of commercial integrity have been such as to allay 
a possible hostility and suspicion. " Rapine, murder and a con- 
stant appeal to force chiefly characterized the commencement of 
Europe's commercial intercourse with China," is the flat declara- 
tion of a leading authority on the affairs of the East, H. E. Gorst 
38 



594 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

by name. " The early Dutch and English adventurers had also a 
share of blackening Europe in the East, and it is not surprising 
that the Chinese came in time to look upon all Europeans as bar- 
barians, men whose only objects were robbery and war," said Presi- 
dent Smyth, in his North American Review article. " Still more 
deplorable," Dr. Smyth adds, li was the impression made by the 
Spaniards. 

" After they seized the Philippine Islands in 1543, a great 
expansion of trade with China resulted ; and such large numbers 
of Chinese settlers went there that in time they outnumbered the 
Europeans in the proportion of twenty-five to one. The Spaniards 
saw in this great influx of Chinese immigrants a menace to their 
own sovereignty, and they massacred the larger part of the 
defenceless and innocent Chinese. The impression which such 
savage butchery of its people made on their native province of 
Canton may easily be imagined, and partly accounts both for the 
reception which the English met with in the following century 
when they first entered the Canton river, and for the fact that the 
people of that province are, with the exception of those of Hunan, 
the most truculent haters of foreigners in China." 

RUSSIA AND GERMANY. 

When we have beyond these facts of history the drastic meas- 
ures of retaliation for crimes, commercial and otherwise, meted out 
by the enlightened, Christian and civilized European state of Ger- 
many to the province of Shantung so late as 1897, in which for the 
murder, during a riot, of two missionaries, she seized territory 
about the bay of Kiao-chau, secured the dismissal of the governor 
and six of his subordinates, successfully demanded payment of an 
indemnity, exacted a promise to build three expiatory chapels, and 
secured a concession for two railways and the right to open mines 
within a region of territory twenty kilometers wide along them. 

Later with an armed force they actually burned to the ground 
two villages, because the Chinese resented these harsh terms of 
settlement ; when beyond these facts of history we observe Russia 
inch by inch encroaching upon her Asiatic neighbor with all the 



WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 595 

subtle craftiness of purpose which is allied to the brutal callousness 
to right of the Cossack, what wonder is it that the Chinese 
people are mistrustful of European designs upon them? What 
wonder that in a moment of fanatical zeal for faith and country 
they rise up in open rebellion ? Is it evidence of lack of civiliza- 
tion that they insist upon their own gods and upon their own 
rights, and wish none of ours ? Even the British shield is 
emblazoned with the legend, " Diea et mon droit " (God and my 
right). 

TOOLS AND MACHINERY. 

There awaits the American manufacturer an outlet, especially 
for tools, machinery, and other articles in iron and steel. He will 
find a demand for the smaller and lighter machines, rather than for 
the larger ones. That is to say, he must appeal first to the indi- 
vidual worker who now exists, rather than aim at the needs of a 
conglomeration in a factory which will come about in the future. 
The tools should be simple in character, easily worked and kept in 
order, and without the application of quick-return and other 
mechanical devices so necessary for labor-saving with us. Light 
wood-working machinery can be made to supplant the present 
manual-labor methods ; and a large field is open for all kinds of 
pumps, wind-mills, piping and other articles of hydraulic machi- 
nery. 

These are in demand, in order not only to supply the crowded 
cities with much-needed waterworks — all water in Chinese cities 
being at present delivered by hand — but also for equipment in im- 
proved irrigation for the rice fields. Cotton goods of the finer 
grades, household articles of all kinds, glassware, window glass, 
wall paper, and plumbing fixtures will find a ready market, as will 
also farm equipments, such as light-wheeled vehicles and small 
agricultural implements of all kinds. In these, as in many manu- 
factured articles, American trade has as yet made little or no im- 
pression ; and yet the American has an acknowledged superiority 
over an}' other foreign make. 

It is necessary for us also to study the Chinaman himself. 
The English and American traders make but little attempt to learn 



590 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

the language, and therefore frequently fail to come into personal 
contact with the native merchant. They are inclined to leave such 
negotiations to be conducted through a comprador, a native in the 
employ of the firm, who makes all the contracts, and who guaran- 
tees to his firm all native accounts, receiving a commission for his 
services. The German, and especially the Japanese merchants, on 
the other hand, make a great effort to come into direct relations 
with those with whom they trade. 

They are still making use of the comprador system, but within 
reasonable limits. As to which course is preferable in the long run 
there can be no question. Our houses should adopt the suggestion 
made in the report of the Blackburn (England) Chamber of Com- 
merce, " to train in the Chinese spoken language, and mercantile 
customs, youths selected ... for their business capacity. Such a 
system," the report adds, u would give us a hold over foreign trade 
in China that present methods can never do." 

KNOWLEDGE OF CHINESE LANGUAGE NECESSARY. 

Finally to be considered there is the official representative of 
the United States, the consul. It is bad enough, as our practice is, 
to send consuls to France, or Germany, or Italy, who are unac- 
quainted with the language of the country. But how much worse 
to send to China, the nation most difficult of all to come into rela- 
tions with representatives without any idea, not only of the lan- 
guage, but of the customs and the idiosyncracies of the people. 

The British government long ago established a separate consu- 
lar service for the East, entirely distinct from that elsewhere, so 
that a man once in the China service stays there and is not likely 
to be transferred to a European or American post. Secretary Hay 
has lately made a start toward this end by proposing to establish 
a school at Pekin. If the idea is not carried out now, circum- 
stances will compel its adoption later. 

It is a singular and interesting circumstance that the world's 
progress has always been from the rising to the setting sun, ex 
oriente lux. Now, after a lapse of five thousand years, the youngest 
of the great nations is preparing to pass on, or rather to return, 



WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 597 

this light to the oldest, whence it started in its circumorben journey. 
Whether the latter, receiving back the flame, will add something to 
its brightness, as each previous nation has done, and start it moving 
once more westward, and so begin a new and still higher circle of 
development for the world, is one of those interesting questions 
that only a generation far in the future will be able to answer. 
We of to-day are concerned not with what China will do eventually 
with progress, but with what we ourselves can and should do 
with it now. 

Leading papers in Europe are calling attention to three remark- 
able predictions which were made years ago in regard to the 
present occurrences in Chin a . 

One is found in the " Tui Pei Tu," a book written during the 
fourteenth century and esteemed so dangerous a work that not a 
printed copy can be procured now, and even Europeans who have 
owned it have been known to burn it rather than run the risk of 
being found with it in their possession. According to the London 
Spectator, there is in this book a distinct prophecy that in the new 
year beginning for China on January 22, 1898, China is to be 
partitioned among five peoples, and that, as a result, great woe will 
come upon the Empire. 

WHAT THE CHINESE SAY. 

" In their pigeon English," comments the Spectator, " China- 
men are now saying : ' Russia have top side and French he watchee 
more Tonquin side. Now, German he take Chou Chou Bay. 
Melicau man and English must want something.' If for Melican 
man we read Japanese man, and prophecy looks like coining true, 
and the fact of its diffusion may help toward its realization. " 

The second prediction is in the Museum at Toulouse, being a 
translation of a Chinese document, dated July, 185 1 , which was 
widely distributed during that month throughout Shanghai, and 
the surrounding country. It is a violent diatribe against the French 
and English, who had settled themselves upon Chinese soil, and 
reads as follows : " You are beasts. We can only deal with you in 
one way, and that is by massacring all of you. Your crimes cry 



598 WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? 

out to heaven, wherefore heaven is angry and has ordered us to 
destroy you with the artillery of the gods. 

u As soon as the wrath of the people bursts forth spontaneously 
you will be struck down ; you will be choked to death, and of you 
there will remain but fragments. We will fix the day of a gen- 
eral massacre, but no foreigner will be able to learn when it is to 
take place." 

A CHINESE GENERAL'S PREDICTION. 

The third prediction was made in Paris on June 13, 1880, the 
prophet being General Tscheng-ki-Tong, one of the most brilliant 
representatives of young China, and one of the most trusted lieu- 
tenants of Li-Hung Chang. He had been invited to deliver an 
address at the " Cercle Saint-Simon," and his speech struck awe 
into the fashionable and cultured Parisians who heard him, since, 
though couched in courtly language, it was virtually a challenge 
of the yellow race to the white. 

Gentle, yet sarcastic, were the speaker's first words. He 
eulogized the Parisians as the most cultured people on earth. He 
begged his refined audience not to think too lightly of him on 
account of his barbaric costume, his yellow skin, his almond eyes 
and his pigtail. 

He lauded Parisian tailors, Parisian cooks, Parisian theaters 
to the skies, and as for Parisian women, he vowed that Mandarins 
would be only too happy to lie forever at their feet, even though 
these feet were not quite as small as those of the beauties in their 
own country. Very flattering was all this, and the cultured, fin-de- 
siecle audience was fast becoming enraptnred when suddenly Gen- 
eral Tscheng-ki-Tong's tone changed. He became ironical ; he told 
the Parisians before him that he did not consider them by any 
means faultless, and that in his eyes their civilization was a cloak 
of vanity, frivolity, and corruption. Then he electrified them with 
these strange words : 

' You do not know China ; the country is too large. We our- 
selves born in China, do not know it. Europe, which does not 
know everything, which specially knows very little about China, 



WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? . 599 

makes a sad blunder when it speaks of the Celestial Empire as a 
' regligible quantity ' in the world's affairs." 

Patience — infinite patience, is needed in dealing with the 
Orient audits peoples. If ever there was a time when what Christ 
has taught was needed to be practiced by the West it is now. The 
West can afford, in every particular to be the companion, friend 
and counsellor of the oldest and in many respects the most wonder- 
ful nation the world has ever known. If we have much to teach, 
these pages may reveal that there is something which we have to 
learn from it. 

" We build in our characters," wrote Confucius, "to lift up 
always." 

This may well be the motto of the West in its relations with 
the East 



j 



GLOSSARY AND KEY OF CHINESE TERMS. 



-Mongolian name for out 



Buddha's Horse— The stag of Tibet. 

Chew — The circles of a province. 

Compradores - Chinese agents of Eu- 
ropean firms. 

Chung-kwo— Local name of China, 
meaning "Middle Kingdom." 

Chongeong— Beggars of Tibet. 

Coreo — Prayer mill used in Tibet. 

Chu-kiang -Local name applied to 
the Pearl River. 

Chuen— A ship. 

Chaou — A million. 

Dzongpon— A Governor of Tibet. 

DlJNGAN- 

casts or loafers. 

Kreitza— Name applied to the off- 
spring of Chinese fathers and Mon- 
gol mothers. 

Fu-Kiao— The Buddhism of China. 

Feng-shue— The spirits of wind and 
water. 

Fu — The department of a province. 

Fo — Prosperity. 

Futai — General of an army. 

Gonpa — A minister. 

Garpon - A business agent of a min- 
ister. 

Goe— Mongolian word for river. 

Gobi — Sandy desert. 

Hien — The districts of a province. 

Hoa-hwoi — Workers of embroidery. 

Hoa-kwo — Local name of China, 
meaning " Flowery Land." 

Huen — Meaning the soul. 

Hwei-Hwei — Name applied to the 
Chinese Mohammedans collectively. 

Hui— Societies. 

Hoang-tu— Yellow earth. 

Hok— Study. 

Hea— -Beneath. 

Hwang — Emperor. 

Jade — A tough, compact stone. 

Jin— A man. 

Jih— The sun. 

Kuafung - Dust storms. 
600 



Kwang-fu — Local name for Manda- 
rin. 

Koshun — The Tangut name for ban- 
ner. 

Kui-feng — Cyclone wind — typhoon. 

K aoeiang— Millet. 

Kwan-hoa — Language of the Man- 
darins. 

Kiao — Chinese word applied to in- 
struction, religion and study. 

Kingpao — Pekin Gazette. 

Kow— The mouth. 

Keen — To see or perceive. 

Kan— A root. 

Kai — One hundred million. 

Kew— Nine. 

Kung — Male— word means nobJe. 

La — Mountain pass— a Tibetan word. 

Lama— A Tibetan priest. Word means 
unsurpassed. 

Lass a— Capital of Tibet, means throne 
of God. 

Lagomys —A species of marmot. 

Li — The Chinese mile. Has no fixed 
length. 

Likin — Imperial tax on produce. 

Liang— The Chinese word for tael, 
a coin. 

Lehtze kin — Name given the Jews 
by the Chinese ; means ' ' Cutters of 
Veins." 

Lo— Delight. 

Luh — Six 

Man of Soeitude — A title of the Em- 
peror. 

Munos — A sorcerer of Tibet. 

Maneh — A retaining wall. 

Mansaraur — The lake formed by the 
breath of Brahma. 

Ma — A horse. 

Ming— Brightness. 

Muh — A tree. 

Moo — Mother. 

Nasha — An intoxicating mixture of 
hemp and tobacco. 



GLOSSARY AND KEY OF CHINESE TERMS. 



601 



Neu— A woman. 

Orotha — Gingseng — meaning ''First 
of Plants." 

Potala — The palace of the Tibetan 
pope at Lassa. 

Pulu — A stout woolen fabric woven 
for priests. 

Pao-feng — Fiery wind — typhoon. 

Pa— Eight. 

Pih — A hundred. 

Ravens— The bird called by the Chi- 
nese the "Sepulchers of the Mon- 
gols. 

Red Caps — Religious sect of Tibet. 

Son of Heaven— Title of the Em- 
peror. 

Samli — A kind of shad much favored. 

Soya Hispida— The yellow pea of 
China. 

Sarthol — The land of gold of the 
Indus valley. 

Sang — Sheltered pastures. 

Shroff — A Chinese clerk. 

Shing — Tone. 

Siutsai — A rank corresponding with 
our B.A. 

Shang — Above. 

Sin — Sincere. 

Shi — An arrow. 

San— Three. 

Sze — Four. 

Shih— Ten. 

Tibet — A division of China ; means 
strength or empire. 

Tu-fan— Chinese name for the people 
of Tibet. 

Tarsun— Postal stations in Japan. 

Tien — Means heaven. 

Ti— Means earth. 



Ta — A pagoda. 

Tien-Tsin — A city ; means ' ' The ford 
of heaven." 

Taoism— One of the religions of China. 

Ting — A military prefecture. 

Thoi — Annual feast of the Mongo- 
lians. 

Tatsing-kwo— Official designation of 
China ; means ' ' Great and Pure 
Empire." 

Ta-Ftjng — Typhoon . 

Tao kiao — Taoism. 

Tau-kin-kedu — Name given the Jews 
by the Chinese ; means ' ' Extrac- 
tors of Sinews." 

Tau— Rapids. 

Tan — Means dawn. 

Tsaou — Means herbs. 

Tseih— Seven. 

Tseen — A thousand. 

Tsze— A child. 

Urh— Two. 

Winged Gold — The paper money of 
China. 

Wo — Means I. 

Wo mun — Means we. 

Wan — Means ten thousand. 

Woo — Means five. 

Yellow Caps — A religious sect of 
Tibet. 

Yassak — Legal code of the Mongols. 

Yen — Means words. 

Yo— Means music. 

Yih — Means to change ; also numeral 
one; with slight change in the man- 
ner of writing the character it means 
one hundred thousand. 

Zungarians — A tribe ; means ' ' Tribes 
of the Left Wing." 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 



For almost a year before the recent developments in China 
Christendom had been shocked with stories of outrages upon mis- 
sionaries perpetrated by the Boxers, of the u Society of the Right- 
eous Fist," or of the " Big Sword." Early in the spring of 1900 
these stories increased in number and in April and May, 1900, 
scarce a day passed without rumors from China of repeated atroci- 
ties. The Boxer movement spread rapidly until the powers were 
aroused by the beginning of wholesale slaughter of Christians, 
native and foreign, and the destruction of churches and missions of 
all denominations. What follows is a chronology of events since 
the Boxer agitation became a national political matter in China : 
June 3 — Complaints of Boxer outrages increase. 
June 4 — Russia offers to put down Boxer uprising. Many mission 
stations reported destroyed. Minister Conger sends message to 
Washington complaining that Pekin government is inactive. 
June 5 — Admiral Kempff lands marines at Taku and engages 
Boxers. Boxer movement takes definite shape. Powers inter- 
change opinions. 
June 6 — Mission at Yan Tin burned and Missionaries Robinson 

and Norman killed and mutilated. 
June 7 — Reports from China indicate dangerous increase of Boxer 

disturbances. Great Britain lands troops at Cheefoo. 
June 8 — American missionaries in various parts of China ask Pres- 
ident McKinley for protection. Chinese foreign office refuses 
use of railroad to Pekin to foreign troops. 
June 9 — Boxer disturbances spreading. City of Tung Chow, near 
Pekin, burned and twenty missionaries killed. China protests 
against presence of foreign troops. 
June 10 — Chinese mobs compel all foreigners to seek refuge in the 

legations, which are surrounded by armed Boxers. 
June 1 1 — Chinese Emperor petitions powers to aid him in quelling 
Boxer uprising. Prince Tuan made minister of foreign affairs. 
602 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 603 

June 12 — Sixteen British marines engage Boxers on road to Pekin; 
many Chinese killed. 

June 15 — Dowager forbids foreign troops to enter Pekin. Japanese 
legation burned and chancellor killed. Four thousand Russian 
troops landed at Taku. 

June 16 — Pekin mobs attack foreigners and besiege legations. Ger- 
man minister reported slain at Tien-Tsin. 

June 17 — Chinese forts at Taku being ordered to surrender to 
allies, open fire on allied fleet. Russian, British, French, Ger- 
man and Japanese ships reply. Admiral Kempff refuses to join 
order to surrender or the bombardment. Surrender of the forts. 
Oregon ordered to Taku. Wild riots in Pekin. 

June 19 — Six regiments from India ordered to China. One thou- 
sand two hundred American troops land at Taku. Dowager 
Empress calls Li-Hung Chang to Pekin. 

June 21 — American consulate at Tien-Tsin destroyed. Japan 
charters fifteen transport ships for troops. Gunboat Monocacy 
shot through bows by Chinese guns. Allied troops arrive at Taku. 

June 22 — Admiral Kempff urgently asks for more troops and ships. 
Ninth United States Infantry sails for Taku. 

June 23 — Report of three days' bombardment on Tien-Tsin. 

June 24 — Admiral Remey ordered to China. 

June 25 — Minister Wu, at Washington, asks for armistice, which 
is refused. 

June 26 — Three thousand Japanese troops land at Taku. Li-Hung 
Chang announces presence of foreign troops in Pekin. Cruiser 
Brooklyn leaves Manila for Taku. General Chaffee selected to 
command American troops in China. 

June 27 — Admiral Seymour's expedition returns to Tien-Tsin. 
Sixty thousand Boxers surround Pekin. 

June 28 — Dowager Empress announces burning of the imperial 
palace. Chinese soldiers captured by Seymour say legations 
destroyed and ministers killed. 

June 29 — Admiral Seymour reports defeat of English on march to 
Pekin, June 13 ; 62 killed, 312 wounded. Boxers invade Man- 
churia. 



604 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 

June 30 — Battle at Tien-Tsin ; 7,000 Chinese slain. British Ad- 
miral Seymour wounded. Admiral KempfF reports foreign min- 
isters in Pekin ordered to leave, but refused. Chin Chow attacked 
by Boxers and mission destroyed. Uprising at New Chwang. 
Arsenal at Tien-Tsiii captured by allies. Southern provinces 
revolt. 

July 1 — Murder of Baron Von Ketteler on June 16 verified. Prince 
Tuan in full control of Pekin. Consul Goodnow at Shanghai 
urges governments to send aid to Pekin. 

July 2 — Kaiser announces his intention to lead powers. Message 
from Attache Bergen of German legation countersigned by Sir 
Robert Hart : " Situation is desperate. Hasten." 

July 3 — Admiral Seymour orders all women and children in Tien- 
Tsin to Taku. Number of Boxers estimated at 200,000. Euro- 
pean experts estimate of Chinese army, 500,000. Hospital at 
Mukden destroyed. 

July 4 — Report from Shanghai that the foreign diplomats and 
other foreigners in Pekin — 1,000 in all — were massacred June 30. 
Allied troops in China, 12,000 at Tien-Tsin and 8,000 at Taku. 

July 5 — United States government agrees to co-operate with powers 
to restore order in China. Emperor Kwang-Su and Dowager 
Empress reported poisoned by order of Tuan. 

July 6 — Japan given free hand to quell disturbances in China. 
Kaiser Wilhelm offers 1,000 taels for every foreigner saved. 
Five thousand native Christians massacred in Pekin. Murder 
of German minister, Baron Von Ketteler, confirmed. 

July 7 — Courier from Pekin to Shanghai reports two foreign lega- 
tions standing on July 3. President McKinley orders 6,000 
troops to China. 

July 8 — Chinese lose 1,000 men in battle near Tien-Tsin with Jap- 
anese-Russian forces. 

July 9 — Prince Ching heads counter revolution against Tuan. 
Chinese attack on Tien-Tsin repulsed. Ninth United States 
Infantry arrives at Taku. German squadron sails from Kiel. 

July 10 — Nanking reports Emperor and Empress dead and all the 
foreigners killed. Secretary Hay demands of Chinese govern- 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 605 

ment to allow Minister Conger to send message. Chinese troops 
recapture arsenal at Tien-Tsin. New Chwang sacked and 
bnrned by Boxers. Chinese government issues edict denying 
responsibility for massacre of foreigners. 

Jnly ii — Three days' battle reported at Tien-Tsin between 50,000 
Boxers and 10,000 allies. Admiral Alexieff, with 1,000 picked 
men, routs Chinese army bv a bayonet attack. Japan sends 63,- 
000 men to China. Director of Telegraphs Sheng says legations 
were safe July 4. 

July 12 — Crushing defeat of allies reported from Tien-Tsin. Sir 
Robert Hart's courier brings message of June 24 to Che Foo : 
" We are close to the end. Good-by." Boxers raiding Manchu- 
ria and Russian-held cities. 

July 13 — Prince Ching reported slain. London gives up all hope 
of safety of foreigners in Pekin. 

July 14 — Chinese continue attacks on allies at Tien-Tsin. Cos- 
sacks defeated and killed the Chinese General Kek and 3,000 of 
his men. 

July 15 — Admiral Remey reports defeat of the Chinese in two bat- 
tles on the river between Taku and Tien-Tsin, giving the allies 
command of the river and protecting their communications. 

July 16 — Shanghai reports, with circumstantial detail, the massacre 
of all the foreigners in Pekin on or about June 30. The news 
was alleged to have been supplied by Sheng, imperial director of 
posts and telegraphs, to the foreign consuls at Shanghai. The 
forces of the allies at Tien-Tsin were increased to 28,000 by the 
arrival cf reinforcements. 

July 17 — London looks for a long war and hears of the rapid 
widening of the zone of disaffection in China. Intention of the 
British government to seize Li-Hung Chang as a hostage 
reported in London. 

July 18 — Allies rout Chinese at Tien-Tsin, taking possession of the 
native city, the arsenals and forts. The losses of the allies are 
reported to be about 800 men killed and wounded. President 
McKinley decides the situation does not warrant calling special 
session of Congress. Chinese forces begin an invasion of Man- 



606 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 

churia, Russian territory formerly held by China. Li-Hung 
Chang sails from Canton for Shanghai, en route to Pekin. 

July 19 — Jealousy among the powers and the determination of each 
to protect its own territorial interests in China appear to paralyze 
plans for joint action against Pekin. Great Britain holds Indian 
troops at Hong Kong and Berlin reports a new alliance between 
Germany, Russia and France concerning China. 

July 20 — Washington reports the United States will oppose parti- 
tion of China after the settlement of the Boxer troubles. 

July 21 — Undated dispatch from Minister Conger says : " In British 
legation under continued shot and shell from Chinese troops. 
Quick relief only can prevent general massacre." Secretary 
Long cables Admiral Remey to do all he can to hurry the 
advance of the allies. 

July 22 — Secretary Hay addresses a plea to Chinese officials to save 
legationers in Pekin. Admiral Seymour, British, reports that 
the Chinese have entirely evacuated Tien-Tsin and vicinity. 

July 23 — Czar of Russia decrees a state of siege in the provinces of 
Siberia, Turkestan and Semiretchinsk. Corean and Chinese 
troops clash on Coreau frontier. Consuls at Shanghai decide not 
to call upon Li-Hung Chang officially, the viceroy having arrived 
there. 

July 24 — Sheng, director of telegraphs, reports General Yung Lu 
is to memorialize the throne to permit him to escort the minis- 
ters to Tien-Tsin. 

July 25 — President McKinley sends an answer to Emperor Kwang 
Su saying in brief that the only way China could prove her 
friendly intentions tow r ard the powers was to permit their minis- 
ters to communicate freely with their governments, assuring the 
Emperor of his friendly purposes toward China and intimating 
that failure to free the ministers could be construed only one way 
and that the most serious. 

July 26 — Tak Su, acting viceroy at Canton makes public an imper- 
ial decree bidding the viceroys to arm for war with the powers 
and assuring them there was no way to peace except through 
war. Li-Hung Chang, at Shanghai, states that the government 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 607 

is ready at any time to give the ministers safe conduct to Tien- 
Tsin if the powers will agree to stop the advance upon Pekin. 

July 27 — Washington officials accept the theory that the ministers 
in Pekin are held as hostages by the Chinese government. Li- 
Hung Chang announces that Sir Robert Hart is still alive. 

July 28 — Li-Hung Chang sends a direct personal cablegram to the 
Times-Herald, Chicago, and New York Tribune, that the minis- 
ters in Pekin are alive and their safety assured. Emperor Wil- 
liam addressing his troops departing for China, bids them to 
spare none, but to so terrify Chinamen that for a thousand years 
they will not look askance at a German. General Chaffee is 
talked of for commander-in-chief of the allied forces in the march 
against Pekin. 

July 29 — Washington again inclines to the belief that all the 
ministers in Pekin have been slain. Japanese army of 15,000 
lands at Shan-Hai-Kwan, north of Taku, and defeats a Chinese 
force of 20,000. 

July 30 — Wave of massacre sweeps through the central and 
southern provinces and a general rising is predicted in the Yang 
Tse valley about August 1. A Russian army advancing from 
the south arrives at a point 150 miles from the Chinese capital 
after severe righting. 

July 31 — Messages from the British, Japanese and German lega- 
tions in Pekin dated July 22, are received at Tien-Tsin. Minister 
Macdonald, of Great Britain, reports constant attacks upon the 
legations by Chinese troops with artillery from June 20 to July 
16, on which date an armistice was arranged. Many of the for- 
eigners had been killed and wounded. 

Aug. 1 — Letters from Minister Conger received at Tien-Tsin, say- 
ing all well and safe, with plenty of food, but little ammunition. 
Mr. Conger states : " If they continue to shell us as they have 
done we cannot hold out long and a complete massacre will fol- 
low." General Chaffee goes to Tien-Tsin and reports probability 
of immediate advance to Pekin by the allies. 

Aug. 2 — Dr. G. E. Morrison, correspondent of the London Times 
in Pekin, sends first direct press message from there, exposing 



J 



608 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING 

the duplicity of the Chinese government, which he says issues 
proclamations in daytime demanding safety for legations and 
makes attacks on them at night. Allies begin march on Pekin. 

Aug. 3 — Russian advance guard routs 10,000 Chinese ten miles 
from Tien-Tsin and takes ten forts. Chinese troops from Yang- 
Tse valley marching north to strike relief column in flank. 
Chinese imperial troops advancing to meet relief column wipe 
out a Christian town near Pekin, killing five foreign priests and 
10,000 native Christians. 

Aug. 4 — Shanghai reports Pekin relief column thirty-five miles 
from Tien-Tsin. Sixteen hundred Americans take part. Troops 
following Pei-Ho river using boats to carry supplies and artillery. 
Viceroy of Nanking declares ministers are held as hostages at 
Pekin and will be killed if allies march on capital. 

Aug. 5 — General Chaffee reports that Americans, British and Japa- 
nese are in front of relief forces and French and Russians guard- 
ing line of communications. Thirty thousand Boxers waiting 
to give battle to allies. 

Aug. 6 — Reports from Shanghai that imperial government insists 
on legationers leaving Pekin for the coast under escort. They 
refuse, believing that it means death to them. It transpires that 
on August 1 st Secretary Hay cabled to Li-Hung Chang refusing 
to enter into negotiations until the ministers are safe and noti- 
fied him that the United States would hold the Chinese govern- 
ment strictly to an accounting if any harm befell them. 

Aug. 7 — Admiral Remey reports upon an engagement between 
Boxes and 16,000 allies on morning of fifth at Pei Tsang. Allied 
loss in killed and wounded 1,200; Chinese retreating. 

Aug. 8 — Minister Conger cables : " Rifle firing upon us daily by 
imperial troops. Have abundant food." 

Aug. 9 — German Field Marshal Count von Waldersee appointed 
commander-in-chief of the allied forces. President McKinley 
sends note through Minister Wu to Pekin containing final warn- 
ing notifying imperial government that its troops are expected 
to protect ministers at all hazards. 

Aug. 10 -Yang Tsun, an important strategic point between Tien 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 600 

Tsin and Pekin reported occupied by allied armies after a forced 
march from Pei Kang. Casualties 800 men. An undated cable 
message to Paris from French minister in Pekin says there 
are still living there 800 Christians, including 200 women and 
children. 

Aug. 11 — China appoints Li-Hung Chang minister plenipotentiar}^ 
to arrange terms of peace. Reported that allies number 40,000 
men. Minister Conger again communicates with Washington 
giving word of his absolute refusal to accept Chinese escort out 
of Pekin. 

Aug. 12 — Rumor that Russia is acting independently of allies and 
that M. de Giers, her minister at Pekin, has been given permis- 
sion to leave under escort. News a great surprise at Washington. 

Aug. 13 — China makes strong plea for peace to all governments, 
but her pra} T ers are met by refusal to treat in any wa}^ until 
ministers are safe and in communication with troops. 

Aug. 14 — General Chaffee and Admiral RMiiey both cable that 
allies have reached Ho Si Wu and that the Chinese have fled 
from that place after firing a few shots. 

Aug. 15 — Chinese reported concentrating at Hsing Hoh Sien. 
where fighting is expected. Undated dispatch received from 
Minister Conger w T hich is said to lay blame for massacres at door 
of Chinese government. 

Aug. 16 — Sir Chih Chen Lofengluh, the Chinese minister to 
London, assures the British foreign 0f6.ee that the diplomats in 
Pekin were safe August 13th. Nevertheless a news agency dis- 
patch from Shanghai says the attacks on the legations were re- 
sumed August 7th, and under date of August 9th, M. Pichon, 
the French minister, tells of their being under fire of imperial 
troops and that they were at the time reduced to siege rations. 

Aug. 17 — Rescue of foreigners by allied troops in Pekin is an 
nounced. 

Aug. 18 — Washington receives the following cablegram from Ad 
iniral Remey : " Taku, Aug. 17 — Pekin was captured on Aug. 
15th. Foreign legations are safe." The way into Pekin was 
forced by American, English, Japanese and Russian troops 
39 



j 



610 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 

working in harmony. The Empress Dowager and Emperor are 
supposed to have been fugitives from Pekin since Aug. 9th. 

Aug. 19 — 3,000 British-Indian forces are landed at Shanghai. 
President McKinley awaiting word from Minister Conger and 
General Chaffee in regard to the situation before determining 
the future policy of the United States. 

Aug. 20 — Admiral Remey cables the following to Washington : 
" Chee Foo (no date) — Bureau of Navigation, Washington, Taku, 
18th — Telegraph line to Pekin interrupted. Information, Japan- 
ese sources, Empress Dowager detained by Prince Yengedo, 
inner city, which being bombarded by allies. Chaffee reports 
entered legation grounds evening 15th. Eight wounded during 
day's fighting ; otherwise all well. 

Aug. 21 — Li-Hung Chang, acting for the Chinese government, 
sends a note to the United States and other Powers interested, 
asking that representatives be appointed to meet with him and 
negotiate for a cessation of hostilities. United States is disposed 
to reject the proposition. Nothing will be done until other 
Powers have been communicated with and concerted action 
agreed upon. 

Aug. 22 — Official Chinese dispatches announce that the Empress 
Dowager has fled from Pekin westward carrying with her im- 
mense treasures. United States will refuse Li-Hung Chang's 
petition for the appointment of a peace commissioner unless the 
Allies are permitted to remove the legationers from Pekin to a 
place of safety. General Chaffee reports American losses during 
fighting at Pekin August 14th and 15th as seven killed and 
thirty-one wounded. Count von Waldersee, the German selected 
as commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, sails from Naples, 
Italy, for China. Captain Henry J. Reilly, Battery F, United 
States Artillery, reported killed in attack on Pekin. 

Aug. 25 — Washington received the following message from Consul 
Johnson : " Amoy, Aug. 23 — State Department, Washington — 
Serious outbreaks here. Many buildings burned and destroyed 
by armed mobs. Foreigners in great danger and American pro- 
perty looted. Japanese war vessel has landed marines to protect 



1 



CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 611 

foreigners. American naval vessel should be sent at once." 
Natives reported leaving Pekin. 

Aug. 28 — Paris receives dispatch from St. Petersburg announcing 
rumor that the Russian government has received dispatch assert- 
ing that after fierce battle inside Pekin the Allies retreated, losing 
1,800 men, mostly Russians. 

Sept. 2 — Reports from St. Petersburg state that the Czar has 
ordered General Linevitch, the entire Russian forces and M. de 
Giers and the legation staff to leave Pekin and go to Tien-Tsin. 
United States wires General Chaffee to have his troops in Pekin 
ready to move on short notice. 

Sept. 3 — Washington orders the 5,000 American troops to be 
divided between Pekin and Tien-Tsin and Taku for the winter. 
Abundant supplies are constantly arriving in China. 

Sept. 6 — London receives a dispatch from Sir Alfred Gaselee stat- 
ing that the situation in Pekin was unchanged on August 29. 
The German cruiser Schwalbe has gone to Amoy. 

Sept. 13 — Russia and France officially informed the United States 
of their intention to withdraw their troops and Ministers from 
Pekin to Tien-Tsin. 

Sept. 19 — Count von Waldersee, commander-in-chief of the Allied 
troops in China, arrived at Hong Kong. In a note to the Powers, 
Germany demanded the punishment of Chinese responsible for 
outrages as a preliminary to peace negotiations. 

Sept. 20 — Russia modified its proposal for withdrawal from Pekin 
by consenting to retain a detachment in the capital. 

Sept. 21 — After suffering heavy loss, the Allied forces in China 
captured the Pei-Tang and Lu-Tai forts. Tu-Liu, a Boxer head- 
quarters east of Tien-Tsin, was destroyed. 

Sept. 29 — In answer to the Powers' inquiries the United States 
government made plain her policy in China, rejecting Germany's 
proposal as to punishing Chinese leaders, and declaring her 
purpose to withdraw most of her troops at once. 

Oct. 1 — General Chaffee received orders for the withdrawal of Amer- 
ican troops from China at once. 

Oct. 3 — Replying to the Chinese rulers' message of regret at Baron 



j 



612 CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOXER UPRISING. 

Von Ketteler's death, Emperor William of Germany sharply de- 
manded that the guilty officials be punished. 
Oct. ii — In fear of serious outbreaks in Southern China, Hong 
Kong authorities summoned ten thousand India troops. Amer- 
ican war ships were held ready at Shanghai for prompt action. 



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